
Class CL~ A H Q 

Book XJAMH* 

Copyright N?_ 



CriFYRrGHT DEPOSIT. 






MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 








L (AS) 



t^n J On-^^h. 




MEMORIES 



OF 



RUFUS CHOATE 

WITH SOME CONSIDERATION OF 

HIS STUDIES, METHODS, AND OPINIONS, AND OF 
HIS STYLE AS A SPEAKER AND WRITER 



BY 



JOSEPH NEILSON 



L 










BOSTON 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

New York : 11 East Seventeenth Street 

®fe Otoerji&e press?, Camfcri&se 

1884 



,C4 H& 



Copyright, 1884, 
By JOSEPH NE1LS0N. 

All rights reserved. 



TJie Riverside Press, Cambridge: 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co. 



To 

THE MEMORY OF THE LATE 

ISAAC GRANT THOMPSON, 

AT WHOSE SUGGESTION IT WAS UNDERTAKEN, 

IS DEDICATED. 



COOTKIBUTOKS. 



JOSHUA M. VAN'COTT. 
ALFRED P. PUTNAM, D. D. 
WILLIAM STRONG. 
RICHARD S. STORRS, D. D. 
MATT. H. CARPENTER. 
JAMES T. FIELDS. 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 
W. C. BOYDEN. 
PROFESSOR WASHBURN. 
ENOCH L. FANCHER. 



GEORGE H. NESMITH. 

PROFESSOR SANBORN. 

EDWARD B. GILLETT. 

NATHAN CROSBY. 

ROS WELL D. HITCHCOCK, D. D. 

EDWARD E. PRATT. 

OTIS P. LORD. 

WILLIAM W. STORY. 

GEORGE P. MARSH. 

JOHN WINSLOW. 



AND OTHERS. 



"• 



PREFACE. 



In this series of articles, I have sought to re- 
vive somewhat the love and reverence due to 
the memory of Rufus Choate. There was, in- 
deed, little hope of doing justice to his learning 
and genius. That had been attempted by abler 
hands. But I was led to believe that, with the 
aid of others, his gifts and services, the devotion, 
dignity, simplicity, and usefulness of his life might 
be so recalled and illustrated as to be useful to my 
professional brethren, and interesting to the gen- 
eral reader. It was also believed that facts and 
incidents, resting in the silent memories of his 
friends, might be called out and preserved ; and 
herein lay the motive for taking up the subject. 

With these views, I sought the cooperation of 
gentlemen known to have been intimate with 
him. The kindness with which my applications 
were treated left me no reason to regret the 
office which I had assumed. I received many 
letters approving of my purpose. But some of 
my correspondents, advanced in years and feeble 



X PREFACE. 

in health, were not equal to the labor proposed. 
Their letters, written with tremulous hands, can- 
not be read without emotion. They refer to Mr. 
Choate in affectionate terms, and some of them 
express the hope — now known to be delusive — 
that returning strength might enable them to 
comply with my request. 

The writers whose contributions are now pub- 
lished held various relations to Mr. Choate, — 
his associates in the college, his students in the 
law office, his professional brethren, his friends, — 
those friends who were with him in hours of joy 
and of sorrow, and those who saw and heard him 
occasionally, and knew him in the supreme felicity 
and attraction of his genius and character. 

In respect to almost any other memory, those 
writers might not have been inclined to turn aside 
from their favorite studies or official labors to take 
part in a commemoration. But, in this instance, a 
loving spirit moved them, and presided over their 
work. With the loyalty of disciples, and the faith- 
fulness due to a trust, they give delineations of 
Mr. Choate. The poetical, the practical, the ear- 
nest, the loyal, the serious, the reverential traits 
of his character, as revealed at home and abroad, 
are set forth with freedom and fidelity. 

Mr. Edwin P. Whipple, who had written of Mr. 
Choate as early as 1847, was requested to take up 



PREFACE. XI 

the subject again. After some time and prepara- 
tion, he wrote me that — the materials having ac- 
cumulated on his hands to an extent not adapted 
to my use — he had concluded to send his paper 
to the Harpers, and was pleased to say, " I have 
taken great delight in your series of articles and 
communications." His recollections were published 
in the " Half-Hour Series." 

Mr. Augustus Russ, of the Boston bar, had the 
kindness to send me a list of all the cases — the 
titles, books, and pages — given in the law re- 
ports, in which Mr. Choate had appeared as 
counsel. I was much impressed by his courtesy, 
as the clerical force in his office must have been 
severely taxed in making that collection. 

I take special pleasure in expressing my grate- 
ful sense of the kindness of Mr. Brown, President 
of Hamilton College. In the Preface to the last 
edition of his " Life of Rufus Choate," he makes 
favorable mention of the papers which I furnished 
to the "Law Journal" in 1877 and 1878, and ex- 
presses the hope that they " will be published in 
a form easily accessible to the many who would 
delight to read them." 

I am indebted to Mr. Edward Ellerton Pratt, 
Mr. Choate's son-in-law, for special and valuable 
information. 

My thanks are due to Messrs. Little, Brown and 



xii PREFACE. 

Company for allowing me to use, in my Appen- 
dix, Mr. Choate's Remarks at the meeting of the 
bar on the occasion of Mr. Webster's death. 

Some of my articles were submitted to the late 
Emory Washburn. In a letter received from him, 
written a few days before his death, he said, " I 
am glad that Mr. Choate is taking his true position 
as the scholar, the orator, and the jurist, among 
the men of genius and learning of our country. 
I am glad that you have told the public, in cool- 
ness, candor, and discrimination, just what sort of 
a man he was, and his true claims upon their ad- 
miration and respect." 

It was gratifying to receive like suggestions 
from gentlemen of distinction, residing in differ- 
ent States, to whom I had not applied for help. 
I am induced to make an extract from one of 
these letters, as readers will be desirous of know- 
ing the opinion which the late William Cullen 
Bryant entertained of Mr. Choate. He says, 
" The lives of distinguished lawyers and great 
orators are peculiarly interesting ; and in the 
subject of your memoir you have a most remark- 
able man of that class, endowed with the gift of 
persuasion to a degree of which there are very 
few instances on record." 

An application to the late William Adams, 
D. D., LL. D., President of the Union Theological 



PREFACE. Xlii 

Seminary, for his recollections of Mr. Choate, was 
made at a time when the burden of work and duty 
on his hands was too great for his strength. His 
letter in reply contained the first information I 
had of his declining health. To the sorrow which 
the fact of his illness gave me was added the 
regret that I had troubled him with such an ap- 
plication. But his letter was so genial and kind, 
the tone and spirit of it so cheerful — as if pres- 
ent troubles were chastened by hope and trust — 
that I almost ceased to regret my untimely inter- 
ference. As I valued highly the few words he 
was able to write about Mr. Choate, I was grateful 
for permission to use them as I might see fit. In 
the last clause of his letter, he says : — 

" I feel a profound interest in everything per- 
taining to Mr. Choate, and sincerely regret my 
inability to add anything to your own valuable 
recollections. It was not my good fortune to hear 
Mr. Choate in public assemblies, or at the bar, 
very often. My acquaintance, with him was per- 
sonal and domestic, and my admiration for him 
unbounded. I heard his New England Society 
oration in New York (December, 1843), being the 
chaplain on that occasion, and remember well his 
turning to me for an explanation of the extraor- 
dinary bursts of applause which prevented his ad- 
vance three several times, after he had uttered 



x i v PREFACE. 

what may have seemed to him very simple sen- 
tences. You will readily admit, my dear sir, the 
reasonableness of what I have stated as excusing 
me from a service which otherwise would have 
been a pleasure and an honor. Thanking you 
again for the enjoyment I have had, in hours of 
illness, in reperusing the brilliant oratory of Mr. 
Choate in the books you have so kindly sent me, 
and in reading your contributions to his fame in 
the ' Journal,' I remain," etc. 

When some of my articles, and of the letters 
received, were sent to the "Law Journal," this 
form of publication had not been contemplated. 
I have since rewritten parts of those articles, 
omitted parts, and have taken up some additional 
topics. As it was not my purpose to dwell upon 
subjects which my correspondents had considered, 
I have had no occasion to speak o£ Mr. Choate's 
studies at Dartmouth College or at the Law School 
in Cambridge, little occasion to speak of his genius 
as an orator and advocate, of his learning as a 
jurist, of the wit and wisdom which characterized 
his conversation, or of the qualities which drew 
others to him in love and sympathy. Even his 
birthplace has been so described by one who made 
a loving pilgrimage to it that the " Hill by the 
Sea " seems as if visibly present. 

The reader will also find — it may be contrary 



PREFACE. XV 

to expectation — that, owing to the nature and 
variety of Mr. Choate's gifts and peculiarities, 
more than twenty correspondents have found 
material for their narrations without repeating 
each other. 

Mr. Choate's use of language has excited so 
much remark that I have deemed it proper to 
give that subject special consideration. I have 
caused his entire vocabulary, as found in print, 
to be collected, and so classified as to show its 
constituents. With a view especially to the rela- 
tive proportions of Anglo-Saxon and of classical 
terms used, I have also taken twenty notable 
papers, — arguments, orations, essays, — by minds 
of the first order within the last hundred years, in 
England and America, and have had them sub- 
jected to the same analysis. 

The illustrations — a likeness of Mr. Choate, 
and views of his birthplace and of his grave — 
have been approved by friends of the family. 

J. N. 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Ancestry and Birth. — Home Influence. — Early Prom- 
ise . _ Admission to the Bar. — Practice at Danvers 
and at Salem. — Choate and Webster. — Criminal 
Cases. — Popular Fallacy. — Erskine. — Counsel in 
Criminal Cases necessary ; Familiar Instances. — 
Opinions of Professors Washburn and Parsons. — The 
Case of Professor Webster. — Statements of Mr. 
Pratt and Judge Lord. — Duty and Privilege of an 
Advocate * 



CHAPTER II. 

The Study of Law. — Powers of Memory. — Inference 
of Unknown Facts, and as to the Characters of 
Jurors and Witnesses. — Silent Conference with a 
Juryman. — Opinions of Professor Parsons, Mr. Lor- 
ing, Mr. Dana, and Judge Sprague. — The Number of 
Mr. Choate's Cases. — His Treatment of Witnesses . 23 



CHAPTER III. 

Eminent Men misunderstood. — The Advocate and Mis- 
taken Critics. — As to creating a Taste for a Pecul- 
iar Style. — How readily Choate was understood. — 
Alexander H. Stephens and Professor Sanborn as 
to Choate. — The Born or Natural Orator. — The 
Office of the Orator « 



xv iii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PAGE 

Vacations for Reading. — Studies with Books and with- 
out them. — Conversations with Mr. Pratt and Mr. 
Carpenter. — Solicitude as to Improvement. — Taste, 
Illustrations of. — Formation of Character. — Colo- 
nial Experience . 63 



CHAPTER V. 

Classical Studies. — Ancient Greece. — The Saxons. - 
The Latin. — English in India. — Macaulay's Service. 
— As to Equivalents in Saxon for Some of our 
Words ........... 79 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Study of Words. — The Percentage of Anglo- 
Saxon, Latin, and Greek used by Mr. Choate and 
other Eminent Scholars. — The Methods of Sharon 
Turner and George P. Marsh. — Tables as to Deriv- 
atives 96 



CHAPTER VII. 

Style, Variations of. — Long Sentences. — The Metho- 
dist Church Case. — Habits of Revising Speeches. — 
A Contrast. — The Importance of Rhetorical Dec- 
orations. — The Freedom of Discourse necessary to 
an Advocate. — Long Arguments . . . . .112 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Rev. Dr. Hitchcock's View of Mr. Choate. — Extracts 
from Journal. — The Comparative Advantages of Liv- 
ing in the Old World. — Music. — Vindication of Sir 
Walter Scott. — Intervention ; Kossuth's Visit. — 
Eulogy of Webster 128 



CONTENTS. xix 



CHAPTER IX. 

PACE 

Preparation for Service in Congress — Rank and Ac- 
ceptance. — Lost Speeches. — Annexation of Texas. — 
The Tariff. — Home Industry and the Mechanical 
Arts; Progress. — Concurrent Views of other States- 
men ,...•••••••• 1°' 



CHAPTER X. 
The Indictment of McLeod. — The Rule of Immunity 

SUGGESTED BY Mr. FOX. — THE COURSE PURSUED BY THE 

Secretary of State. — Debates in Congress. — De- 
fense of Mr. Webster. — Trial of McLeod. — Act as 
to Remedial Justice. — Other Questions before the 
Senate. — The Bank. — Mr. Clay's Interference in 
Debate ....••••••• l'«* 



CHAPTER XL 
A Short Term in Congress, a Sacrifice. — Resigns to 

RETURN TO THE PROFESSION. — MODEST ESTIMATE OF HIS 

own Powers. — The Rewards of Professional Work. 
— Continued until his Health failed. — His Last 
Case. — Cheerful to the Last. — A Sea Voyage for 
Health too late. — His Death. — His Love of the 
Union. — Conversations with Mr. Pratt. — Appre- 
hends Civil War. — In that War, after his Death, 
he is well represented ....... 194 



CHAPTER XII. 

Rufus Choate and Lord Macaulay : a Contrast . . 204 



XX CONTENTS. 



LETTERS. 

Joshua Van Cott 229 

A. P. Putnam, D. D 232 

Enoch L. Fancher 255 

George W. Nesmith 261 

William Strong 27 ° 

R. S. Storrs, D. D 275 

Matthew H. Carpenter • 2 ^3 

James T. Fields 2 " 

Dr. Boyden 307 

Emory Washburn 312 

E. D. Sanborn 327 

Edward B. Gillett 334 

Nathan Crosby 340 

Henry K. Oliver 352 

William W. Story 362 

George P. Marsh 375 

John Winslow 383 

From Choate to Sumner 414 

APPENDIX. 

Remarks before the Circuit Court on the Death of Mr. 
Webster 433 

INDEX 453 




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MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 



CHAPTER I 

Ancestry and Birth. — Home Influence. — Early Promise. — 
Admission to the Bar. — Practice atDanvers and at Salem. — 
Clioate and Webster. — Criminal Cases. — Popular Fallacy. 

— Erskine. — Counsel in Criminal Cases necessary ; Familiar 
Instances. — Opinions of Professors Washburn and Parsons. 

— The Case of Professor Webster. — Statements of Mr. 
Pratt and Judge Lord. — Duty and Privilege of an Advo- 
cate. 

Rufus Choate came of Puritan ancestry. 
John Clioate, the first of the lineage who came 
over from England, settled at Ipswich, now Essex, 
in Massachusetts. Of some of his descendants in 
the next four generations we have interesting 
particulars. His son was for several years a mem- 
ber of the Colonial Legislature, and died in 1695. 
Thomas Choate, born in 1671, upheld his pastor, 
the Rev. John Wise, in opposing the tyranny of 
Governor Andros, and was so devoted to public . 
affairs that he was commonly called " Governor 
Choate." Francis Choate, born in 1701, was a jus- 
tice of the peace for about thirty years, and was a 



2 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

writer and a speaker of some repute. William 
Choate, born in 1730, followed the sea for several 
years, and later in life was a teacher in the public 
schools. One of his sons, David, was born on the 
29th day of November, 1757. At the age of nine- 
teen, he went into the army under General Gates, 
and afterward served in a Continental regiment 
under Lafayette. After peace had been declared, 
he made voyages to Southern ports and to Spain. 
On the 15th of October, 1791, he married Mir- 
iam, a daughter of Aaron Foster ; and from that 
time until his death, in 1808, he resided at Ips- 
wich, his native place. To them were born six 
children, — Mary, Hannah, David, Rufus, Wash- 
ington, and Job. 

Rufus Choate was born at Ipswich, on the first 
day of October, 1799. 1 Until fifteen years of age, 
when he went for some months to the Academy in 
Hampton, N. H., he remained at home. In this 
he was fortunate. His father and mother were 
persons of rare endowments. Intelligence, prin- 
ciple, cheerfulness, sound common sense, in each 
of them, were wrought together in the integrity 
of a complete character. The family training 
gave the proper bias to his sentiments. In his 
youth he was full of promise ; in a marked degree, 
aspiring and intellectual. At an age when boys 

1 See Dr. Putnam's description of his birthplace. 



HOME INFLUENCE. 6 

are expected to care for none of these things, he 
had a thirst for knowledge, a fondness for reading, 
and a fine sense of the use of words. It appears 
that when he was six years old he had " devoured 
the Pilgrim's Progress," and used to surprise his 
playmates by recitations from it ; and that, before 
his tenth year, he had read most of the books in 
the village library. Beneficent influences, acting 
on a delicate, docile, susceptible, emotional nature, 
— a nature easily chilled, if not perverted, by 
contact with the world, — had been at work in 
advance of the schools. Thus it was that, in clue 
time, the boy went out to those schools mature in 
moral and intellectual strength, prepared to exer- 
cise the manly patience given to his riper studies. 
He carried with him the devotion, the genial 
spirit of his home life ; and the early love never 
faded from his heart. 

In his sixteenth year he entered Dartmouth 
College, and, after his graduation there, remained 
a year as tutor. He then went to the Law School 
at Cambridge, and, after the usual course of study, 
became a student in the office of Mr. Wirt, Attor- 
ney-General of the United States. Still later he 
was a student in the law offices of Mr. Andrews 
at Ipswich, and of Judge Cummins at Salem. He 
was admitted to practice by the Court of Common 
Pleas in 1823, and by the Supreme Court in 1825. 



4 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

He began practice at Danvers. The building 
in which he had his office has been taken down. 
While living there, he married Helen Olcott, an 
alliance which gave grace and dignity to his social 
life. He was chosen a member of the Legislature 
and of the State Senate, and was thus brought 
into near relations with the leading men of the 
Commonwealth, some of whom became his life- 
long friends. In 1828 he moved to Salem. There 
further political honors came to him. He was 
elected to Congress, and, having served one term, 
was reelected ; but, at the close of the first session, 
he resigned, and soon after settled in Boston. 
He had then acquired great repute as an advo- 
cate. But, although his knowledge of the law 
and his command of all that gave power and 
beauty to illustrations of it had been severely 
tested at Salem, where there was a strong bar, he 
may have had some misgivings as to the competi- 
tion that awaited him in his future labors. The 
field chosen was occupied by lawyers who, in learn- 
ing, eloquence, experience, judgment, and dignity 
of character, compared favorably with the mem- 
bers of the profession in any city of the world. 
Among such men, by the studies and contentions 
of a few years, he won his way to the highest 
and best assured professional renown. The gifts 
and acquisitions, the zeal, energy, and persever- 



WEBSTER AND CIIOATE. 5 

ance necessary to secure that distinction must 
have been very great. The highest proofs of 
merit are found in that achievement, and in the 
fact that the members of the bar loved him ; as is 
shown by brotherly attentions while he lived, and 
by the eloquence of sorrow when he died. 

From their first appearance at the bar, as op- 
posing counsel, comparisons were made between 
Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate, as if their rela- 
tive merits as lawyers and advocates could be thus 
determined. But these men were so unlike in 
genius and in style that the comparison was futile ; 
it was unjust. When Mr. Choate came to Boston, 
Mr. Webster stood on vantage ground. It was 
not merely that he had had great experience, and 
was enjoying the fame of his triumph in the Dart- 
mouth College case before Mr. Choate took up the 
study of law, but that, by a series of signal and 
impressive services, ministering to the interests, 
the pride, and the honor of the people, he had 
won their love and confidence, and had become 
invested with a degree of weight and authority 
which no member of the bar, as such, could have 
secured. The glamour of his greatness would im- 
press, if not mislead, the average juryman. In the 
forensic tournament he was thus doubly armed, 
whether his quarrel were just or not. Mr. Choate 
had no such special claim to attention, had no ar- 



6 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

mor but such as industry, learning, and eloquence 
could supply. He led no one to regard him as the 
rival of Mr. Webster ; his taste would have been- 
offended at the suggestion of such rivalry. His 
estimate of Mr. Webster's powers was too generous 
to admit of such qualification. In the like spirit, 
Mr. Webster often expressed his admiration of 
Mr. Choate's learning and eloquence. Indeed, it 
may be doubted whether he ever went into a trial 
or an argument in opposition to Mr. Choate with- 
out being conscious that he was meeting an ath- 
lete whose dexterity and strength were equal to 
his own. Enough is known of their causes to jus- 
tify the belief that none of them was lost or won 
because either counsel had failed to make a proper 
presentation of the facts to the jury, or of the 
law to the Court, in whatever form or domain of 
jurisprudence that law might have been discover- 
able. 

Most young lawyers of shining parts have had 
occasion to undertake the defense of criminal cases 
as a source of income, or as the most direct ap- 
proach to popular notice and favor. As Mr. 
Choate's relation to such cases has been freely 
and, at times, unfavorably mentioned, some obser- 
vations on that subject may be proper. 

While in practice at Danvers and at Salem, he 
had often acted as counsel for persons accused of 



PRACTICE IN CRIMINAL CASES. 7 

crime. It has been said that no one defended by 
him was convicted. The like fortune, to a great 
extent, attended his subsequent efforts. In im- 
portant cases, where the indications of guilt were 
thought to be strong, his clients were acquitted. 
Such instances gave rise to the popular notion 
that his powers of persuasion could lead jurymen 
to sympathize with and shield the guilty. Some 
laymen were shocked on learning that shades of 
mental disorder, with new names, had been dis- 
covered. Others — as if one who, while walking 
in his sleep, kills another, should be punished — 
objected to the defense of somnambulism inter- 
posed for the benefit of Tirrell. There were, I 
may say in passing, two indictments against Tir- 
rell ; one for murder, the other for arson ; both 
depending on circumstantial evidence. The ver- 
dicts were not obtained against the rulings or the 
instructions of the Court. Indeed, in one of the 
cases, Chief Justice Shaw, in his charge to the 
jury, strongly discredited some of the witnesses 
for the prosecution. These cases excited as much 
effeminate criticism as any in which Mr. Choate 
was supposed to have had undue influence with 
the jury, but the general sense of the profession 
was satisfied with the acquittal of Tirrell. 

Mr. Choate was not less sought for, nor less 
successful, in civil cases. But his brilliant de- 



8 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CEO ATE. 

fenses in the other department of the law had 
excited more attention, and led to the imposition 
of a title which represented the least important 
part of his labors : that of " The Great Crim- 
inal Lawyer." To those familiar with legal and 
forensic history this title implied no disparage- 
ment; none, certainly, not equally deserved by 
advocates of historic renown, ever to be held in 
reverence, who, after counsel could be heard for 
the accused in State Trials in England, devoted 
their skill and influence to the protection of life 
and liberty. 

There came a time, perhaps about midway in 
his professional career, when the pressure of crim- 
inal cases was especially distasteful to Mr. Choate. 
He may have been conscious that his sympathies 
were not always under his control, and that in the 
fervor of discussion he was liable to be carried be- 
yond the line of logical argument which his de- 
liberate judgment would have approved. It may 
be believed, however, that he had no other or fur- 
ther cause for regret. No one has suggested that 
he ever practiced any artifice or evasion to enable 
the guilty to escape. It would seem, therefore, 
that the eulogist of that other great criminal law- 
yer, Daniel O'Connell, could have had the assent 
of few sensible persons when he referred to Rufus 
Choate as the man " who made it safe to murder ; 



EARNESTNESS IN HIS PROFESSION. 9 

and of whose health thieves asked before they be- 
gan to steal." 

Mr. Wendell Phillips may have known little of 
the matter implied in that aspersion, of the merits 
of the cases in which Mr. Choate had been en- 
gaged, or of the spirit which led him to defend 
the rights of persons charged with crimes of which 
they may have been innocent. To no one was 
the pure, indexible, benign administration of the 
law more dear than to Mr. Choate. His letters 
and speeches prove that devotion. But to no one 
could the feeble presentation of a case, half giving 
it away, have been more offensive. This is shown 
by his example. From first to last, he did his 
work with all his might. It is further proved by 
an entry in his Journal as to a trial which he had 
witnessed at the Old Bailey : that of Pate, charged 
with striking the Queen. Mr. Choate says, " The 
prisoner's counsel, in my judgment, gave up his 
case by conceding, ' he feared he should fail.' I 
thought and believed he might have saved him." 
It is apparent that he should have saved him, as 
" All seemed to admit that the prisoner was so far 
insane as to make whipping improper, yet that he 
was not so insane as not to be guilty." No coun- 
sel could thus neglect the rights of the accused 
without being guilty of a moral offense deserving 
the severest reprobation. In such a case, it would 



10 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

be more just and humane to err, if at all, by excess 
of zeal than by want of it. 

The fact that, as occasion required, Mr. Choate 
did defend criminal cases, is to be regarded with 
grateful pride. It illustrates not merely a spirit 
of self-sacrifice, the sympathy which led him to 
consider those who were in sore, perhaps unde- 
served, distress, but also the sense he had of his 
duty as an advocate. Still he does not seem to 
have adopted the opinion of Cicero : that, where 
life was at stake, it was more honorable to defend 
than to prosecute. He had respect for the wants 
of the State as well as for those of the citizen. In 
one of the few cases in which Mr. Webster acted 
for the people, that of Knapp, charged with aid- 
ing; and abetting in the murder of White, Mr. 
Choate, then too young at the bar to take a prom- 
inent part, was with him as associate counsel ; and, 
twenty-three years later, when he could select 
the work best suited to his taste, he accepted 
office as Attorney-General of Massachusetts. 

The popular fallacy which imputes want of 
moral tone to lawyers who are willing to defend 
those apparently guilty of crime has been exposed 
by Dr. Johnson and other moralists. 1 Sydney 
Smith's article on " Counsel for Prisoners " 2 bris- 

1 Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. iii., ch. ii. ; ib., cb. ix. ; vol. iv., cb. i. 

2 Edinburgh Review, 1826. 



ERSKINE'S CLAIMS UPON US. H 

ties with facts and arguments in favor of the 
rights of the accused. Erskine, in terms and by 
example, denies the right of counsel to withhold 
their services. In his defense of Thomas Paine, 
the author of the " Rights of Man," in which he 
utterly failed, Erskine went further in asserting 
the duty of the advocate than, under like cir- 
cumstances, Choate might have done. But, in 
resisting the importunity of his friends who 
sought to prevent his undertaking that defense, 
the question with Erskine became one of right or 
privilege, rather than of duty. He was asserting 
his independence as a member of the bar. Yet, in 
a later case, one in every sense more inviting and 
respectable, he speaks as though he had the right 
to withdraw. Except in the case of Paine, he was 
fortunate in the character of his professional work. 
His name is dear to us, and will be to future gen- 
erations, because, in defending those who were 
charged with offenses against the State, he had 
occasion to expose the fallacy of constructive trea- 
son, and to assert the independence of the jury 
and the liberty of the press. Therein lies his 
claim to remembrance. 

That the services of counsel are necessary in 
criminal cases has been proved by bitter experi- 
ence. In England, able lawyers were called in to 
represent the Crown, even when the accused was 



12 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

denied such aid. Thus Coke and Bacon served, 
and in some cases to their lasting discredit. This 
course largely contributed to the "judicial mur- 
ders " which darken the pages of history prior to 
the reign of William and Mary, and which emi- 
nent English authors — Hume, Mackintosh, Camp- 
bell, Macaulay — have deplored. 

Mr. Scarlett, afterwards Lord Abinger, whose 
experience at the bar had been great, was of opin- 
ion that, unless the prisoner had the benefit of 
counsel, justice could not be safely administered. 
He declared that he had often seen persons, whom 
he thought innocent, convicted for want of acute 
and intelligent counsel. Expressions of like im- 
port abound in debates in Parliament and in legal 
biography. 

In illustration of this view it may be well to re- 
fer to a few familiar cases at home. 

In 1770 some British soldiers were to be tried 
in Boston for murder. The circumstances were 
such as to excite popular indignation and horror. 
Josiah Quincy, Jr., then a young lawyer, came 
forward to defend them. For a time he suffered 
great reproach. But a letter of remonstrance 
from his venerable father, evidently written in 
great distress, must have given him deeper con- 
cern. He answered the letter in becoming terms, 
stating the principle by which he was governed j 



OPINIONS OF WASHBURN AND PARSONS. 13 

and acting with John Adams and Sampson S. 
Blowers, he went on in the discharge of his duty. 
Some of the accused were acquitted ; others were 
found guilty of manslaughter ; not one of them 
was convicted of murder. 

In a lecture on the " Study and Practice of the 
Law," delivered in the Law School of Harvard 
University, the late Professor Washburn refers, 
with exultation, to the fact that the case was thus 
defended, and says that it secured to the State 
one of its " noblest moral triumphs." That distin- 
guished jurist, Theophilus Parsons, in an address 
to the students of that Law School, in 1859, upon 
the " Character and Services of Rufus Choate," 
said, " There never was a case nor a criminal that 
a lawyer should not defend, with the profound 
conviction that, while he keeps the law with him, 
he is safe in his reputation, safe in his standing in 
the community and among his fellows." He re- 
fers with pride and satisfaction to the defense of 
the British soldiers by Adams and Quincy. He 
also refers with shame and sorrow to " the dark 
and bloody page upon which are recorded the 
trials of the witches in 1692," and says, " that 
none of the protective forms or rules of justice 
shielded those unfortunates, and that no lawyer 
was permitted to act as their counsel." He adds, 
" If a lawyer had defended them, and had applied 



14 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

the test of cross-examination to the wild and fran- 
tic stories of the witnesses, and a judge had been 
there who could tell the jury what the law was, 
and a jury had been there willing to learn the law 
and to obey it, this black and ineffaceable spot had 
not fallen upon the childhood of Massachusetts." 

In 1741, what has been known as the "Negro 
Plot," a supposed conspiracy to burn the city of 
New York and to massacre its inhabitants, threw 
the people into great excitement and alarm. The 
accused, put on trial, had no counsel. The At- 
torney-General, assisted by several counsel, con- 
ducted the prosecution. Of the persons arrested 
and tried, some were hanged, some burned, and 
others transported. In his " Criminal Trials," 
Chandler refers to the testimony as contradic- 
tory, and insufficient to prove the crime charged ; 
and agrees with Bancroft that the pretended plot 
" grew out of a mere delusion." That view has 
been generally accepted. 

In 1735, John Peter Zenger, against whom the 
Attorney-General had filed an information charg- 
ing him with having published a malicious and se- 
ditious libel, was tried before the Supreme Court 
in the city of New York. The counsel, who first 
appeared for him, raised a question of jurisdic- 
tion, and were excluded from the bar. Zenger's 
friends brought Andrew Hamilton, then about 



PROFESSOR WEBSTER'S CASE. 15 

eighty years of age, from Philadelphia, and he 
conducted the defense. He admitted the publica- 
tion, but sought to show the truth of the paper, 
and claimed that the jury were to pass on the mo- 
tive and intent of the defendant, and so determine 
the question of guilt or innocence. The jury 
found the defendant not guilty, " in the teeth," it 
is said, " of the instructions of the Court." 

These instances may suffice. Is it not reason- 
able to infer that some of the British soldiers 
might have been found guilty of murder, and that 
Zenker would have been condemned, if the aid of 

CD 

counsel had been denied them, and that, with 
such aid, the victims of the supposed "Negro 
Plot " could have been saved ? 

When Professor Webster was charged with the 
murder of Dr. Parkman, it came to be generally 
understood in Boston that Mr. Choate was unwill- 
ing to act as his counsel. That he refused to un- 
dertake the defense was known only to his family 
and to those who had a special interest in the fate 
of the prisoner. Indeed, so reticent was Mr. 
Choate that all his friend, Professor Brown, could 
say, long afterwards, was that, for reasons which 
he judged satisfactory, he had declined. This 
statement excited, rather than satisfied, curiosity. 

But, now that the occasion for such silence has 
passed away, it seems proper, as due to Mr. 



16 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Choate's memory, that all doubt should be re- 
moved. Entertaining this view, Mr. Edward El- 
lerton Pratt and the Hon. Otis P. Lord, Judge of 
the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, an intimate 
personal and professional friend of Mr. Choate, 
have kindly made to me the following state- 
ments. 

Mr. Pratt says, "Mr. Franklin Dexter, one 
of the leaders of the bar in New England, was 
greatly interested in Professor Webster's case, 
believed that he was innocent, and was persist- 
ently earnest that Mr. Choate should defend him 
on that ground. The Hon. Charles Sumner, also 
holding that view, urged Mr. Choate to undertake 
the defense, as he expressed it, in the interest of 
humanity, and was quite angry with him for 
refusing. At that time the testimony taken be- 
fore the coroner was known ; that taken by the 
grand jury, by whom the indictment had been 
found, was not publicly known. The question of 
the Professor's guilt or innocence was the absorb- 
ing topic, and the excitement in all classes of 
society was intense. 

" Mr. Dexter was determined to secure Mr. 
Choate's services, and, after much study of the 
case, called, by appointment, one evening to lay 
before him what he called its merits. Mr. Choate 
listened to him, as a juror might have done, for 



MR. DEXTER AND MR. C HO ATE. 17 

nearly three hours; and, as he afterwards told 
me, it was one of the most vigorous and per- 
suasive arguments he ever heard. That estimate 
may well be accepted, when we remember Mr. 
Dexter's ability, his friendship for Professor Web- 
ster, and his belief that, if Mr. Choate could be 
secured as counsel, the accused might be saved. 

"The argument having closed, Mr. Choate 
walked up and down his library several times, 
and then, pausing before Mr. Dexter, who was 
keenly observing him, said, ' Brother Dexter, how 
do you answer this question, and this ? ' I can- 
not now state the points thus presented, but my 
general recollection of the account given me by 
Mrs. Choate and Mr. Dexter is, that those ques- 
tions presented insuperable difficulties underly- 
ing the defense. Mr. Dexter, as if transfixed, sat 
musing deeply, his head bent upon his hand, for 
several minutes, and, finally, as if hopeless of find- 
ing an answer, and seeking relief, he arose sud- 
denly, and said, ' Brother Choate, have you read 

's book ? If not, do so, and you will find it 

charming.' Mr. Choate accepted this changed 
mood, parted from him soon after with kindly 
expressions of interest, and the subject was never 
again alluded to between them." 

Judge Lord says, " I had a conversation with 
Mr. Choate on this subject. It was more than 

2 



18 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

twenty years ago, and, of course, it is impossible 
to reproduce precisely his language, but the inter- 
view was substantially this. I said to Mr. Choate, 
' Is it true that you refused to defend Professor 
Webster ? ' to which he replied, — not in direct 
terms, but by implication, — that he did not ab- 
solutely refuse, but that they did not want him. 
Pausing for a while, he added, ' There was but 
one way to try that case. When the Attorney- 
General was opening his case to the jury, and 
came to the discussion of the identity of the 
remains found in the furnace with those of Dr. 
Parkman, the prisoner's counsel should have risen 
and said, substantially, that, in a case of this im- 
portance, of course counsel had no right to con- 
cede any point, or make any admission, or fail to 
require proof, and then have added, ' But we 
desire the Attorney- General to understand, upon 
the question of these remains, that t the struggle 
will not be there. But, assuming that Dr. Park- 
man came to his death within the laboratory on 
that day, we desire the Government to show 
whether it was by visitation of God, or whether, 
in an attack made by the deceased upon the 
prisoner, the act was done in self-defense, or 
whether it was the result of a violent alterca- 
tion. Possibly the idea of murder may be sug- 
gested, but not with more reason than apoplexy, 



MR. CHOATE'S MODE OF DEFENSE. 19 

or other form of sudden death. As the prisoner 
himself cannot speak, the real controversy will 
probably be narrowed to the alternative of justi- 
fiable homicide in self-defense, or of manslaughter 
by reason of sudden altercation." ' 

" Having said this, he added, ' But Professor 
Webster would not listen to any such defense as 
that/ accompanying that statement with language 
tending to show that the proposed defense was re- 
jected, not only by the accused but by his friends 
and advisers. 

" He then said, c The difficulty in that defense 
was to explain the subsequent conduct of Professor 
Webster,' and he proceeded with a remarkable 
and subtle analysis of the motives of men, and the 
influences that govern their conduct, to show that 
the whole course of the accused, after the death, 
could be explained by a single mistake as to the 
expediency of instantly disclosing what had hap- 
pened ; that hesitation or irresolution or the de- 
cision, ' I will not disclose this,' adhered to for a 
brief half-hour, might, by the closing in of cir- 
cumstances around him, have led to all that fol- 
lowed. Having concealed the occurrence, he was 
obliged to dispose of the remains, and would do 
so in the manner suggested, and with the facilities 
afforded by his professional position. He con- 
cluded, ' It would have been impossible to convict 



20 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CEO ATE. 

Professor Webster of murder with that admis- 
sion.' 

" I suggested that the possession of the note by 
Professor Webster, as paid, was an awkward fact. 
He said, ' Yes, but it might seem to become a 
necessity after his first, false step of concealment.' 
He added, ' Dr. Parkman was known to have been 
at the hospital. When, and under what circum- 
stances, and to explain what statements made by 
him, the Professor thought it expedient to say he 
had paid the note, or to obtain possession of it, 
would probably never appear. It was simply an 
incident whose force could be parried, if he could 
obtain credit for the position that the concealment 
was a sudden and impulsive after-thought, which 
took possession of and controlled him in his subse- 
quent conduct.' " 

We have, in these statements, the desired testi- 
mony as to Mr. Choate's relation to that case. 
We have also an illustration of his view of the 
duty and privilege of an advocate. It is apparent 
that, while accepting the theory that, in a crim- 
inal case, a lawyer is not at liberty to withhold 
his services absolutely, Mr. Choate did not think 
him bound to go into court, contrary to his own 
convictions, and assert what he did not believe to 
be true, or take a line of defense which he con- 
sidered untenable. Thus, for instance, as he was 



RIGHTS OF CRIMINALS. 21 

satisfied that, at the time and place alleged, Dr. 
Parkman had died in Professor Webster's pres- 
ence, Mr. Choate was not willing to act on the 
theory that Dr. Parkman was alive after that time, 
and to call and examine witnesses to testify, as 
they finally did, under a mistake as to identity, 
that they had seen him clay after clay in the 
streets of the city. That theory was set up on the 
trial and failed, as Mr. Choate had foreseen that it 
would fail. 

In taking leave of this subject, and recalling 
the fact that, in England, the right of the accused 
to speak by counsel in State trials was secured, as 
a national reform, long desired by the people and 
by the best and wisest men in Parliament, we may 
well be grateful that our system of criminal prac- 
tice was, at an early day, framed on just and hu- 
mane principles. With us, the right of the accused 
to be defended by counsel has been respected, in- 
deed secured, by the Constitution ; and, if need 
be, counsel is appointed for that purpose by the 
Court. It is to be confessed, however, that, even 
with our improved methods of discovering the 
truth and our humane administration of the law, 
mistakes have been committed. Instances have 
occurred where skill and learning could not un- 
ravel complicated circumstances, and the innocent 
have been condemned to die. So also, in the light 



22 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

of newly discovered evidence, it has been seen 
that men have been unjustly consigned to the 
state prison ; and after they may have suffered 
the bitterness of death for years, we open the 
doors with a humiliation scarcely less than that 
inflicted on them. We are thus admonished to 
improve our methods, to give the accused every 
reasonable means of defense, and to accept cor- 
dially whatever aid can be properly rendered in 
determining the guilt or innocence of those who 
are tried as criminals. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Study of Law. — Powers of Memory. — Inference of Un- 
known Facts, and as to the Characters of Jurors and Wit- 
nesses. — Silent Conference with a Juryman. — Opinions 
of Professor Parsons, Mr. Loring, Mr. Dana, and Judge 
Sprague. — The Number of Mr. Choate's Cases. — His 
Treatment of Witnesses. 

Although endowed with great intellectual pow- 
ers, Mr. Choate was as careful, methodical, and 
solicitous in regard to mental helps as any student 
who might have been less conscious of innate 
strength. He seems to have been mindful that 
excellence was attainable not only by those who 
could pass on swiftly and easily, but by those who, 
less favored of nature, were superior in diligence. 
Thus, regarding genius as the mere capacity to 
acquire knowledge and to use it, he gave himself 
up to habitual study. 

Some perils attend students who possess great 
intellectual gifts. From the time when such a 
one perceives how receptive he is to suggestions 
of truth and beauty, and how readily the barriers 
which impede others yield to his touch, he may 
become the victim of a delusive self-confidence, 



24 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

and be led to accept the notion that the fruitful- 
ness of his life will be of spontaneous growth. As 
he seems to apprehend intuitively the less occult 
relations of things, he regards close and prolonged 
study as unnecessary. So, content with some ap- 
pearance of culture, he falls into easy ways, and 
goes through life as the lounger saunters through 
the streets. He is like the slothful miner who 
gathers up the bits of precious metal exposed to 
view, without acting on the hint nature gives of 
the wealth hidden beneath the surface. Another 
student, of like gifts, moves on earnestly, acquires 
knowledge, does some good work. Having found 
that what he should learn is easily acquired, he 
assumes that there need be no limit to his attain- 
ments. Like the student in " Faust," he confers 
with the evil spirit and is encouraged to inquire 
into mysteries too subtile for his comprehension. 
He takes to such studies, and thenceforth swims 
not with the current but against it. He is vain 
and unstable in proportion as he evades the influ- 
ence of natural laws, the checks and hindrances 
designed to hold him in restraint, and which are 
as necessary for his safety as the wall built at the 
side of the road by the river is for the protection 
of travelers. He undertakes to inform the school- 
men in their specialties, and his speculations on 
science and on the nature and relations of man 



MR. CHOATE'S LONG-HEADEDNESS. 25 

partake of the artificial texture of his life. As he 
has clone some good work in certain departments, 
his speculations secure respect and confidence. 
Thus his best efforts may have an evil influence. 

Rufus Choate escaped the perils which thus be- 
set students. He knew the need and the use of 
study ; he knew also the limitations that were to 
be respected. A conservative spirit held him in 
restraint, and repressed longings to slake his thirst 
at fountains beyond his reach. In early life he 
refused to follow a friend into the labyrinths of 
German mysticism, or to explore the region which 
Swedenborg had made his own. This reserve be- 
came him, not simply because he did not wish to 
be " shocked, waked, or stunned ' : out of settled 
convictions, but because the duties before him, 
with the studies they involved, would consume 
his time and strength. So he put aside as improv- 
ident whatever was remote from the purposes of 
his life. He never lost his balance by reaching 
out too far, nor, like one of old, walked into the 
water while gazing at the stars. 

The special and seemingly alien qualities of Mr. 
Choate's nature were strongly marked. He was 
gentle, yet exigent ; simple, yet subtile ; natural, 
yet artistic ; poetic in conception and tone, yet 
acute and logical. But his studies were so conso- 
nant to his wants, and his work so wisely chosen, 



26 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

that those qualities of mind, acting in harmony, 
were moulded into perfect unity of character. In 
the record he has left, we can clearly discern his 
love of nature, and of all that is good and true 
and beautiful ; the loyalty, sagacity, and prudence 
that guided him in his public services, and the 
tenderness and cheerfulness that made his home- 
life as a perpetual summer. But, however we 
may indulge in speculations as to his peculiar gen- 
ius, he should finally be accepted as his own inter- 
preter. 

We owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Brown 
for having collected the fragments that could be 
found of Mr. Choate's Journal. A part of it, writ- 
ten when he was traveling abroad, he no doubt 
intended for his family and friends. The other 
part, especially that which relates to his studies, 
may have been for the benefit of his son, then a 
student. But the Journal having, as we may as- 
sume, served its purpose, shared the fate of much 
else that he had written. How much of it was 
lost is not known. The parts of it which we have 
are rich in suggestion and instruction, the style 
exquisite in its unstudied grace and beauty. 

Mr. Choate's study of the law was extraordi- 
nary. I find in legal biography no instance of 
equal devotion. In speaking of his early course, 
he told Mr. Parker, the author of the " Reminis- 



HIS LEGAL ENTHUSIASM. 27 

cences," that in studying law he gave his mind 
wholly to it ; that his habit was to read until two 
o'clock in the morning. After that early experi- 
ence, his legal studies became less exclusive, as he 
was seeking a broader and more generous culture 
than the law could give. But, even in his latest 
years, he sought inspiration from Coke on Little- 
ton, lest his legal taste should decline. That he 
might be in full communion with the spirit and 
philosophy of our language and institutions, and 
of our legal science, — the law of the law, — 
he studied, almost daily, other languages and other 
systems of jurisprudence and of government. 

He was wont to accept judicial determinations 
of important questions with jealous scrutiny. His 
modes of inquiry, adhered to long after he had 
attained great fame for his learning in the law, 
were peculiar and characteristic. He was in the 
habit of collecting the facts stated in cases reported 
in the books, and of preparing arguments for or 
against the decisions ; of criticising the authorities 
cited, and finding others to confirm or to qualify 
them ; and of seeking to discover how far a doc- 
trine, underlying a series of adjudications, might 
be made to appear more or less just in the light 
of history, of reason, and of scientific principles. 

Equally special and exhaustive was his study of 
the cases in which he was to appear as counsel. 



28 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Each case was tested and tortured until every con- 
ceivable phase of strength and of weakness was re- 
vealed. His son-in-law and partner, the late Mr. 
Bell ; his student, the late Senator Matt. H. Car- 
penter ; and Judge Fancher, who was concerned in 
a case with Mr. Choate, agree as to the thorough- 
ness of his preparation. He studied pen in hand. 
The facts and qualifying circumstances were en- 
tered in a little book. Books of this kind, with 
notes of decisions, were used by Erskine. Mr. Espi- 
nasse says that, after great experience at the bar, 
Erskine used to bring his little book into court and 
read cases from it. On one occasion his opponent, 
affecting to ridicule the habit, said that he wished 
Erskine would lend him his book. Lord Mansfield 
said, " It would do you no harm, Mr. Baldwin, to 
take a leaf from that book, as you seem to want 
it." Erskine thus used his book when he sought 
to show that the impeachment of Warren Hastings 
was at an end, owing to mere suspension on the 
dissolution of Parliament. Edmund Burke, easily 
excited by opposition of any kind in regard to 
that impeachment, had a fling at " ideas that 
never traveled beyond a nisi prius case," and a 
sneer for the book. 1 Mr. Choate had little need 

1 In this relation it is grateful to recall the fact that, a short time 
before his death, Burke called on Erskine, and, holding out his hand, 
said, " Come, Erskine, forget all. I shall soon quit this stage, and 
wish to die at peace with everybody, especially with you." 



DAILY PRACTICES. 29 

of his book in court, as what he had written was 
deeply, if not indelibly, impressed upon his mem- 
ory. But the book of facts, thus useful in prepa- 
ration, would be further useful to be revised and 
extended, should the case be put over to another 
term. So, too, in the multitude of cases, it might 
prevent confusion. It is said that Sugclen once 
got hold of the wrong brief and argued in support 
of his opponent's side of the case, and that Dun- 
ning made a like blunder. No such mistake has 
been reported of Erskine or of Choate. 

In his Journal, Mr. Choate describes his studies ; 
tells how the early hour was employed. He had a 
few minutes with favorite authors, English, Greek, 
Latin, French, often a lesson from each, and then 
the genius of the law beckoned him away. Thus, 
for instance, he is in London, and after saying, 
" Mr. Bates called and made some provision for 
our amusement," he adds that he read the Bible, 
the Prayer Book, a half dozen lines in Homer and 
Virgil, and a page of Williams's " Law of Real 
Property." It was a rule with him to read at least 
one page of some law book daily. All this to keep 
the simple elements of the law fresh in mind ; a 
purpose from which not even the delights of 
travel, of new scenes and associations could wholly 
divert him. Thus trained and strengthened, his 
vision could take in, as from a tower of observa- 



30 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

tion, the domain of the law. It lay before him as 
a familiar and inviting landscape. Hence it was 
that when, on a trial or an argument, principles 
apparently adverse or decisions not anticipated 
were cited against him, the countervailing doc- 
trine, if there was any, was in his mind ready for 
use. The study of law, thus pursued, leads to 
logic, to ethics, to metaphysics ; in a word, to the 
whole range of special sciences. Mr. Choate may 
have accepted the Justinian definition, " Jurispru- 
dence is the knowledge of things divine and hu- 
man ; the science of what is just and unjust." If 
so, that may suggest some of the reasons which 
led him to adopt more liberal studies than are 
usually thought necessary to professional success. 

We all know that many men less studious and 
learned than Mr. Choate become distinguished 
and useful lawyers, and have great weight and in- 
fluence in public affairs. But it may be safely 
said that only those who are endowed with spe- 
cial gifts, as if set apart and consecrated to the 
service, can become great advocates. How some 
of these special gifts waited upon Mr. Choate and 
served him may be readily recalled. 

His power of memory was so marvelous and so 
useful that some further reference to it may be 
proper. The "Law Reporter," 1 in describing the 

i Vol. vi., p. 385. 



NOTE ON THE PHOENIX BANK TRIAL. 31 

trial of the Phoenix Bank cases (1844), in which 
Mr. Webster and Mr. Choate were counsel for dif- 
ferent defendants, has the following note : — 

" In the course of the trial, and in a most excit- 
in«* passage, when all the counsel ajipeared to be 
intent upon the case and nothing else, Mr. Web- 
ster wrote on a slip of paper the favorite couplet 
of Pope, and passed it to Mr. Choate : — 

' Lo, where Masotis sleeps, and softly flows 
The freezino; Tanais through a waste of snows.' 

Mr. Choate wrote at the bottom ' wrong ' — 

* Lo, where Maeotis sleeps, and hardly flows 
The freezing Tanais through a waste of snows.' 

Mr. Webster rejoined ' right,' and offered a wager. 
A messenger was dispatched for Pope, when it ap- 
peared that the present Senator (Choate) had the 
advantage of his predecessor (Webster), and was 
right. Mr. Webster gravely wrote on the copy 
of Pope, ' Spurious edition ! ' and the subject was 
dropped. All this while the spectators were in the 
full belief that the learned counsel were in ear- 
nest consultation on some difficult point of law." 

In his " Reminiscences of Daniel Webster" (p. 
358), Mr. Peter Harvey gives what would seem to 
be the same incident, though referring to another 
author. The title of the case on trial is not stated, 
nor are the lines of the poet. But it is said, " Mr. 
Webster sent an extract from Cowper, which Mr. 



o 



2 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 



Choate corrected and returned, intimating that 
there had been a misquotation. Mr. Webster re- 
peated his first version and claimed that he was 
right. A messenger was sent for Cowper's ' Task ; ' 
the place was found, and Mr. Webster saw that 
the sentiment was as Mr. Choate had corrected 
it. He smiled, and wrote with a pencil upon the 
margin of the page containing the disputed pas- 
sage, ' A spurious edition.' " 

Mr. Parker, in the " Reminiscences of Rufus 
Choate" (p. 183), relates how, at a special gather- 
ing in Washington, in the winter of 1850, the con- 
versation having turned upon " Young America," 
Mr. Webster referred to the lad in severe terms, but 
Mr. Choate, claiming that he was no new thing in 
the world's history, cited the following passage, as 
proof of the antiquity of the character : " Statim 
sapiunt, statim sciunt omnia; neminem verentur, 
imitantur neminem, atque ipsi sibi exempla sunt." 
Which may be translated, less liberally than by 
Mr. Parker, At once they are wise, at once they 
know all things ; they reverence no one, they imi- 
tate no one, and follow only their own example. 
Mr. Benton thought that the quotation was too 
happy to be genuine ; and Mr. Choate referred 
him to the younger Pliny, where it was found in 
the twenty-third letter of the eighth book. 1 

1 As felicitous as Swift's quotation from Virgil upon the injury of 



MR. CHOATE'S KEEN PENETRATION. 33 

It is obvious that, with such power of memory, 
Mr. Choate could readily recall the proofs peculiar 
to a case on trial and apply them to instant use. 
In special cases, he might not know, often could 
not know, upon what proofs his adversaries relied. 
But he could, by an intellectual and reflective 
process, infer much that belonged to the other 
side of a case. This power of reasoning from the 
known to the unknown, of judging how men 
would act, was possessed by him in a remarkable 
degree. Of this an esteemed correspondent gives 
an illustration. He says, " In my early experi- 
ence I had a complicated case of some importance, 
in which Mr. Choate was retained as counsel. 
There had been no consultation, and I was to pre- 
pare a full statement of the facts. With the aid 
of my client, I arranged the points, more than 
thirty in number, with the proofs as to each, in 
their apparent order and relation. I then went 
to Mr. Choate and read the paper to him. He» 
said, ' Please repeat numbers 26 and 27.' I did 
so. He said, ' There is something wanting ; the 
human mind does not work in that way. The case 
drifts on naturally enough down to 26, but there a 
peculiar complication comes up, and your state- 
ment does not meet it. At that juncture, the par- 

a violin by fire communicated from a lady's garment hanging next 
it: "Mantua, vas.1 misery nimium vicina Cremonce." 

3 



34 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

ties, influenced by business habits, by interest, or 
by- desire to overreach each other, had several 
courses open to them ; ' and he proceeded to in- 
dicate each in his peculiar way. I resumed the 
study of the case, had conferences with witnesses ; 
my client found additional correspondence ; and it 
finally appeared that Mr. Choate was right. The 
new matter under 26 presented a more full and 
connected view of the case on its merits, quite in 
harmony with one of Mr. Choate's illustrations, 
and on the trial of the action had controlling in- 
fluence." 

Mr. Choate was almost always able to fix upon 
the theory on which his cases should be tried. 
This called for the exercise of great judgment. 
He seldom disclosed his theory until it was seen 
that the proofs at large were consistent with it. 
But, when the current of testimony set in against 
it too strongly and baffled expectation, his theory 
was abandoned and a new one devised. The transi- 
tion was made so adroitly that few could perceive 
that he had been disappointed. 

A correspondent, long a leader of the Boston 
bar, in referring to Mr. Choate's perception and 
sagacity as exceptional, says, " He could read the 
mind and infer the character of a juryman or of a 
witness with wonderful readiness and certainty. I 
have sat by him in court when jurors were se- 



AN UNUSUAL CASE. 35 

lected, and when witnesses, strangers to him, were 
called, and been told what he thought of each of 
them in turn, and I cannot remember an instance 
in which he was mistaken. Nearly allied to that 
was his ability to judge of circumstances in their 
relation and bearing. I have been with him in 
the trial of cases when the party and the attorney 
for whom he acted had little conception of the 
difficulties to be encountered, and have often 
witnessed the ease and readiness with which he 
met and unraveled complications which threatened 
defeat. In this relation, an action I had brought 
to recover the price of a cargo of goods which my 
client had sold on credit may be worthy of notice. 
The defense set up was fraud. The defendant 
claimed that my client had represented the goods 
to be sound and merchantable when he knew that 
they were not ; that, relying on that representa- 
tion, he had purchased and shipped the goods to a 
foreign market and had suffered great damage. 
My client denounced the defense as a scheme to 
put off the payment of an honest claim, and was 
too indignant to confer about it. Accepting his 
views, I assumed that there would be no attempt 
to prove the defense, and on the day of trial at- 
tended with him and a witness to prove the ac- 
count. Brooks, the broker who had acted with us 
in making the sale, had recently died. (I pause 



36 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

a moment to state some facts of which we were 
then ignorant. In the same month and before my 
client's sale, the defendant had purchased of an- 
other person and shipped to the same market a 
like cargo of goods, and had, it seems, been de- 
frauded as in his plea alleged. Brooks, the broker, 
had also acted with that person in making the 
sale.) At court, the defendant and his counsel 
met us ready for trial ; my client still had his 
' Pshaw ! pshaw ! ' as to the defense. But I got 
nervous, and sent for Choate to help me, and hap- 
pily he came. 

" Our formal proofs were put in. The defend- 
ant's counsel then opened the defense, and pro- 
ceeded to prove it. My client was in great wrath. 
Choate said to me, ' He is honest, and we shall 
find our way out of the scrape.' The last and 
principal witness for the defense appeared to be a 
sensible, substantial sort of person. He spoke to 
the whole case, -and explained how he knew that 
the goods were made of bad materials, not fit for 
use. He was employed on the ship that had taken 
the goods, and was the only witness to prove the 
false representations alleged. I said to Mr. Choate, 
' He is inventing that.' He replied, ' No, he is 
truthful, but mistaken ; ' and went on to cross- 
examine. He and the witness were soon on the 
most friendly terms. I never saw Mr. Choate 



A TRUTHFUL BUT FALSE WITNESS. 37 

appear so simple and slow of apprehension. The 
witness, not thinking that he was much of a law- 
yer, took to him kindly, and was anxious to have 
him understand the whole matter. Mr. Choate, 
seeming to admit that the representations had been 
made and were false, was very solicitous about the 
party making them. The witness was quite clear 
that the name was that of the plaintiff, and was 
disposed to argue the question on the ground that 
Brooks, whom he had known, was with us, as we 
had admitted. He described the seller of the 
goods ; his size, complexion, whiskers, dress. When 
all that had been fixed beyond recall, and my 
client had come forward to be identified, Mr. 
Choate, turning to the witness, with changed man- 
ner and terrible emphasis, said, ' Can you, on your 
oath, say that this is the man ? ' The likeness 
which had been given was so unlike, bo flagrant, as 
to excite roars of laughter, in which the jury 
joined. The witness answered, ' You know that's 
not the man ; what do you want to make fun of 
me for ? ' Mr. Choate assured him that he was 
not responsible for the blunder of charging fraud 
on the wrong person, and said he would like to 
have him repeat the name of the ship in which 
the goods had been taken and state positively the 
time of sailing. These facts having been given, 
Mr. Choate said to the Court that he would prove 



38 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

more fully that our goods were sold two weeks 
later, and were sent by a different vessel. On 
that having been shown, the defendant's counsel 
abandoned the defense. 

" Without assuming to judge of the defendant's 
integrity, I am satisfied that his counsel was no 
party to the trick ; had not dreamed of the mis- 
take. But I can say that Mr. Choate was the first 
to suspect that there had been some real transac- 
tion as to which the witness was speaking truly. 
He discovered the blunder when we were blind to 
it, and dealt with the witness accordingly. My 
client was very grateful. Mr. Choate made light 
of his services, and accepted only half of the fee 
I brought him. My client refused to take the 
other half back, and it was sent as a gift to Dr. 
Adams's church." 

Another correspondent says, " I went into court 
to see Mr. Choate, and found him addressing a 
jury. The proceedings having been suspended for 
a few minutes, I said to him, ' We want an inter- 
view in B.'s case ; how long will you be in closing 
your argument ? ' He said, ' I don't know. That 
red-headed juror on the back seat does not seem to 
understand the case yet, and I must feel of him, 
and put some points in a new light.' I went back 
to my seat, and he remained looking at the jury, 
without apparent concern. When the Chief Jus- 



PROFESSOR PARSONS 1 S RECOLLECTIONS. 39 

tice came on the bench again, Mr. Choate, rising, 
said, ' If your Honor please, I detain you no longer. 
Gentlemen of the jury, that is our case.' He had 
a verdict. As we walked to his office, I told him 
how amazed I had been, and asked why he had 
changed his plan. He said, ' When you mentioned 
B.'s case, I was conferring with my red-headed 
juryman, and, after some further conference, I 
saw I had him.' " 

In his address before the Law School of Harvard 
University, to which I have already referred, Pro- 
fessor Parsons, after speaking of his long-continued 
intimacy with Mr. Choate and of a trial in which 
they had been opposing counsel twenty-four years 
before, says, " I have the more right to make this 
use of his memory, because he was one of us. It 
was in this school that he laid the foundations 
upon which he afterward built up his great knowl- 
edge of the law. And we have the right to say 
that they were ample, deep, and strong, when we 
remember the vast and beautiful structure which 
rested upon them." He also says, " I have, in- 
deed, no hesitation in saying that he was one of 
the most learned lawyers I have ever met with. 
And his learning; was excellent in its kind and 
quality." 

The proceedings of the Suffolk bar, on the oc- 
casion of Mr. Choate's death, fitly illustrate the 



40 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

estimation in which he was held as a scholar, as 
an advocate, and as a citizen. It would be diffi- 
cult to find in modern biography anything more 
touching and impressive. 

In presenting the resolutions at the meeting of 
the bar, as instructed by the committee, Mr. 
Charles G. Loring, among other things, said, 
" Having been, for more than twenty years after 
Mr. Choate came to this bar, his antagonist in 
forensic struggles, at the least, I believe, as fre- 
quently as any other member of it, I may well be 
competent to bear witness to his peculiar abilities, 
resources, and manners in professional services. 
And having, in the varied experiences of nearly 
forty years, not infrequently encountered some of 
the giants of the law, whose lives and memories 
have contributed to render this bar illustrious 
throughout the land, — among whom I may include 
the honored names of Prescott, Mason, Hubbard, 
Webster, Dexter, and others among the dead, and 
those of others yet with us to share in the sorrows 
of this hour, — I do no injustice to the living or the 
dead in saying that, for the peculiar powers desir- 
able for a lawyer and advocate, for combination of 
accurate memory, logical acumen, vivid imagina- 
tion, profound learning in the law, exuberance of 
literary knowledge, and command of language, 
united with strategic skill, I should place him at 



VIEWS OF MR. DANA AND JUDGE SPRAGUE. 41 

the head of all whom I have ever seen in the 
management of a cause at the bar." 

Mr. Richard H. Dana, Jr., other parts of whose 
address have been often quoted, said, " The world 
knows how he electrified vast audiences in his 
more popular addresses; but, sir, the world has 
not known, though it knows better now than it 
did, — and the testimony of those better compe- 
tent than I am will teach it, — that his power here 
rested not merely nor chiefly upon his eloquence, 
but rested principally upon his philosophic and di- 
alectic power. He was the greatest master of 
logic we had among; us. No man detected a fal- 
lacy so quickly, or exposed it so felicitously as he, 
whether in scientific terms to the bench, or popu- 
larly to a jury ; and who could play with a fallacy 
as he could ? Ask those venerated men who com- 
pose our highest tribunal, with whom all mere 
rhetoric is worse than wasted when their minds 
are bent to the single purpose of arriving at the 
true results of their science, — ask them wherein 
lay the greatest power of Rufus Choate, and they 
will tell you it lay in his philosophy, his logic, and 
his learning." 

When the resolutions were presented at the 
District Court of the United States, Mr. Justice 
Sprague made some interesting remarks from 
which I quote a few words. " Others have spoken 



42 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

fully and eloquently of his eminence and excel- 
lence in various departments. We may here at 
least appropriately say something of him as a law- 
yer and an advocate. His life was mainly devoted 
to the practice of his profession, and this court 
was the scene of many of his greatest efforts and 
highest achievements. I believe him to have been 
the most accomplished advocate that this country 
has produced." 

Mr. Choate was, year by year, engaged in the 
trial and argument of cases more continuously 
than any other member of the bar whose name I 
can recall. But the extent of his work cannot, at 
this late day, be stated. Of the causes in which 
he was counsel and argued questions of law and 
equity, in the State and Federal Courts, three hun- 
dred and thirty-three have appeared in the regular 
Reports, and are familiar to the profession. Many 
of them were of grave importance, and called for 
the application of principles in special and novel 
relations. But, as other counsel were often con- 
cerned with Mr. Choate, it cannot be said how 
much of the work should be ascribed to him. 

The number of his trials before juries is not 
known. Many of them were described in the 
public prints, and parts of some of his arguments 
were given. But, as the reporters had not the 
skill men of that class now have, the reports were 



EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES. 43 

imperfect. Owing to the same or a like defi- 
ciency, I cannot find a fair report of his cross-ex- 
amination of witnesses. A correct report would 
be worth preserving as a model. His fairness in 
the treatment of witnesses often secured their 
favor and the good-will of the jury. If the wit- 
ness was timid, he was encouraged ; if nervous, 
soothed ; if eager, repressed ; if honest, protected ; 
if crafty and adverse, exposed. Witnesses who 
wished to tell the truth found him patient, cour- 
teous, helpful, considerate. He knew that they 
often err from want of memory, perhaps from ina- 
bility to distinguish what they know from what 
they have heard. So, having the sanctity of an 
oath in mind, he cared for the witness as he cared 
for himself. Such witnesses often remembered 
him with gratitude, while dishonest witnesses 
learned to fear him. Herein Mr. Choate was the 
friend of the Court. Judge Sprague must have 
thought so when he said of him, " His skill in the 
examination of witnesses was consummate. I have 
never seen it equaled." What Mr. Choate said of 
this kind of Daniel Webster's work may be fitly 
applied. " His efforts in trials by jury compose a 
more traditional and evanescent part of his pro- 
fessional reputation than his arguments at law; 
but I almost think they were his mightiest pro- 
fessional displays, or displays of any kind, after 
all," 



CHAPTER III. 

Eminent Men misunderstood. — The Advocate and Mistaken 
Critics. — As to creating a Taste for a Peculiar Style. — 
How readily Choate was understood. — Alexander H. Ste- 
phens and Professor Sanborn as to Choate. — The Born or 
Natural Orator. — The Office of the Orator. 

The power of making good jokes and telling 
good stories, if exercised in public by a man of 
eminence, may detract from the proper estimate 
of his character. Sydney Smith has won lasting 
reputation as a wit ; and his wit was often used 
in the interest of truth and right, but it stood 
squarely in the way of his ecclesiastical prefer- 
ment. President Lincoln had a quaint humor that 
relieved the terrible gloom of his darkest hours, 
but he is credited with jokes and stories that never 
fell from his lips. It was somewhat thus with Mr. 
Choate. Those who had no personal intercourse 
with him, and who formed hasty judgments from 
his peculiarities, adopted erroneous views. To that 
error he may have casually contributed. In legal 
contentions, he was so happy in his retorts that an 
adversary seldom gained anything by interrupting 
his arguments. But the reports of those retorts 



A SHARP RETORT. 45 

(and they were sure to be reported) wanted the 
spirit and grace that had charmed his opponents. 
I can recall but one instance in which his retort 
gave offense. In answering a lawyer who had ad- 
dressed the Court in a loud tone, Mr. Choate play- 
fully referred to his " stentorian powers." To 
his surprise, his opponent rose, and hotly replied 
that nothing in his mode of address would justify 
such a stricture. As he went on thus, his voice 
rose again to a high key, and rang through the 
court-house ; Mr. Choate half rose, and said, in the 
blandest tones, " One word, may it please the 
Court; only one word, if my brother will allow. 
I see my mistake. I beg leave to retract what I 
said." The effect was irresistible ; the court was 
convulsed with laughter. 

Mr. Choate's witticisms in court had their in- 
ception and growth at the moment, had strict re- 
lation to the exciting cause, and were generally 
helpful and for practical purposes. But he used 
occasionally an expression so whimsical as to create 
great amusement. It was caught up and passed 
from one person to another, as current coin. The 
more grotesque the utterance, the better for the 
gossips; but the more certain was it to give the 
public a wrong conception of his method and style. 
Yet it was well to expose a fallacy by some inci- 
sive word, some epithet or epigram. Time was 



46 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

thus saved, and the error made more apparent. 
Thus, when a State line to which he objected was 
of unstable character, it was pertinent to say, 
" The Commissioners might as well have defined 
it as starting at a bush, thence to a blue-jay, 
thence to a hive of bees in swarming time, and 
thence to five hundred foxes with fire-brands tied 
to their tails." But the people remember that, 
and repeat it still in various forms ; while of the 
argument made by him on that occasion, however 
valuable or characteristic, they remember nothing. 

It would seem that a knowledge of Mr. Choate's 
quaint use of words has been treasured up in 
gentle minds. I give extracts from the letters of 
two correspondents, women of culture, who took 
an interest in his peculiarities. One extract is 
called " A Bit of Persiflage." 

" When Mr. Choate was in Washington, the 
ladies were anxious that Mrs. Choate should be 
there, and often beset him about it. On one oc- 
casion, when they asked if he thought Mrs. Choate 
would come, he answered, i Yes, I now think she 
may ; I have written her to come, and have of- 
fered to pay half the expenses.' " 

The other extract is entitled " A Rebuke," and 
relates to the cross-examination of a new-lisrht 
preacher. 

" Mr. Choate. What are you, sir ? 



SARCASM OF A WITNESS. 47 

" Witness. A candle of the Lord. 

" Chief Justice. A what, sir ? 

" Mr. Choate. A dipped candle of the Lord, if 
your Honor please." 

My correspondent reminds me that " a dipped 
candle is of the cheapest sort ; one that gives next 
to no light at all," and says that " therein lies the 
sarcasm." 

In a letter from the late Professor Washburn, he 
objected to " the blazing, comet-like creation of 
fact and fancy in which several writers had been 
disposed to picture Mr. Choate." He may have 
had in mind writers whose infelicitous inventions 
had been taxed to fasten upon Mr. Choate jests 
and gibes which he never uttered ; or those who, 
not content with treating Mr. Choate as a man, 
had sought to depict him as a magician. The 
work of such a writer is before me. I turn the 
leaves of the volume, and collect some interesting 
reminiscences of Mr. Choate's special powers and 
methods. Thus we have, as to his active brain, 
" his head expanding with a thousand thoughts ; " 
as to his rapid study and apprehension, that " he 
grasped the thoughts of a book like lightning ; " 
as to the impression he made upon a jury, that he 
" dashed his view into their minds with all the 
illuminating and exaggerating lightnings of his 
portentous passion ; ' : as to his exhaustive argu- 



48 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

mentation, that he " advanced with a diversified 
but long array, which covered the heavens ; thun- 
der-bolts volleying, auroras playing, and sunlight, 
starlight, and gaslight shooting across the scene in 
meteoric radiance ; " and as to his power to excite 
an audience, that " It was literally almost as if a 
vast wave of the united feeling of the whole mul- 
titude surged up under every one's armpits." 

These quotations may suffice ; and yet I am 
strongly tempted to refer to other statements 
equally worthy of respect ; and especially to no- 
tice how Mr. Choate would " hurl his argument 
home in solid, intense mass that crushed upon 
the ear ; " how he would " launch a fiery storm of 
logical thunderbolts ; " and how, " If a witness lay 
athwart his verdict, he was crushed down and 
crushed up and marched over." 

But that author is not always so complaisant. 
He says that in 1855 Mr. Choate was injured by 
a fall ; and that "After the consequent illness, his 
oratory underwent a marked revolution; he no 
longer tore a passion to tatters." 

Somewhat akin to this, and equally unjust, is a 
statement which the author quotes with approba- 
tion. " The jury advocate must, to a certain ex- 
tent, be a mountebank, if not a juggler and a trick- 
ster." A more miserable conceit was never ut- 
tered. Was Mr. Webster, while before a jury, a 



SPIRIT AND TONE OF AN ADVOCATE. 49 

mountebank, a juggler, or a trickster ? Was Er- 
skine, or Dexter, Pinkney, Parsons, or Curtis, Wil- 
liam Kent, Daniel Lord, or Marshall S. Bidwell ? 

Uncharitable things have been said of many- 
great advocates ; but, as an illustration, one of the 
worst things ever said of Mr. Choate was, that he 
could play the artful dodger in reading a deposi- 
tion. This is a rude description of fine, forcible, 
and effective reading; reading which gives signifi- 
cance and character to vital passages, discloses 
their latent sense and spirit, aids the apprehension, 
and insures a certain and, it may be, a favorable 
interpretation. Such a reader, natural, yet artis- 
tic, " tells the great greatly, the small subordi- 
nately ; " and thus we have heard Macready play 
the artful dodger ; thus Fanny Kemble Butler ; 
thus the gentle Melancthon may have read ; thus 
every pulpit orator, from Whitefield down. 

A merely clever man, with no high aims or love 
of truth; a wordy, sharp, false man, however 
adroit and plausible ; the artful dodger, the moun- 
tebank, juggler, trickster, he who tears a passion 
to tatters, can never be a jury advocate. With all 
his gifts and acquisitions, the advocate must be a 
high-toned, moral man, not a harlequin ; a vital 
utterance, not a mere sham. Jurors are rejDre- 
sentative men and are practical, sensible, and 
often sagacious men, as fond of fair dealing in 

4 



50 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

counsel as in suitors. Hence, in cases involving 
life, liberty, or character, an able advocate goes to 
the jury in a spirit akin to that with which Esther 
went in before the king to plead for her people. 
At such an hour, he indulges in no mere fancies, 
his style becomes a reflex of his own mind and 
heart ; if, as in Mr. Choate's or in Mr. Pinkney's 
efforts, a flash of poetic thought or beauty gleams 
forth, it is merely because the vision is in his 
spirit, and reveals itself as naturally as the simplest 
conception. He is not the less dealing with reali- 
ties after his fashion. 

He would be adventurous indeed who should 
attempt to correct or reconcile much that has been 
written about Mr. Choate. Failing in such a pur- 
pose, he might be driven to adopt the plea of the 
poor fellow under constraint, " I am not mad, but 
numbers have prevailed against me." Yet I ven- 
ture upon some corrections. In the first place, it 
may be said that attention has been diverted 
from Mr. Choate's real character by some not 
unfriendly writers. For this there was neither 
necessity nor excuse. His views and principles, 
his habits and manners, his daily life, were well 
known ; in effect he had lived as one with all 
doors and windows open ; no disguise, no conceal- 
ment, no reservation. 

But Mr. Choate was a genius, as they all de- 



SOME FORMAL CORRECTIONS. 51 

clare, and that fact was sufficient to mislead, and 
stimulate the invention of some critics. 

They discovered that he was a man of words, 
whereas he was a man of ideas fitly represented 
by his words ; that his style is florid, whereas his 
style is clear and unconstrained, effective in its 
simplicity. Those who think that prose should 
have no alliance with poetry, forget that a poetic 
spirit enters into the growth of language, into the 
prattle of children, and into the eloquence of sav- 
age tribes ; forget that the beauty which sparkles 
and flashes over the natural world was intended to 
give tone and color to the world of thought, the 
outer glory to become an inner experience ; forget 
that he who, uniting the wisdom of the past with 
the sagacity of the present, absorbs the power and 
grace of other languages into his own, gives to 
old theories a modern aspect, and to later dis- 
coveries their best application, making the truth 
appear more truthful, the beautiful more beauti- 
ful, becomes a benefactor to his age and people. 
Those who doubt this, who do not perceive that a 
spirit of poetry, of wit and humor, may be helpful 
to culture in thought, language, and style, and 
may be held in such subjection and mellow use 
that we recognize the poet, though he build no 
rhyme, the wit though he excites tears rather 
than laughter, will consign Edmund Burke, Syd- 



52 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

ney Smith, and Rufus Choate to the upper shelf. 
Such spirits, though in a different guise, are, in 
effect, near of kin to the Gradgrind school. In 
inquiry and argument, they always profess to go 
down to what they call the hard-pan. For aught 
we know, the mole does that, and without being 
the wiser for it. They insist upon the facts ; will 
be content with nothing less. I commend Mr. 
Choate to them, a very high-priest of their order, 
a most relentless inquisitor after facts. He would 
know the facts in history, what in fact had been 
the rulings in the Year Books, and by judges of 
later times ; the facts as to the policy, dates, and 
modifications of statutes ; the facts stated in the 
pleadings in a cause ; and, in a trial, he was so 
pertinacious in his quest for the facts that wit- 
nesses who began to testify with certain mental 
reservations were led, as by gentle compulsion, to 
make full and circumstantial disclosures. It must 
be confessed, however, that the facts as discovered 
by the Gradgrinds may have been dry, inert, and 
wanting in relation ; the facts as used by Mr. 
Choate may have been essential to an exposition 
of vital force, instinct with demonstration. 

We have been told by one entitled to great 
respect, that Mr. Choate created a taste for his 
peculiar style. Was the impression made on his 
first appearance before Chief Justice Shaw excep- 



MR. CHO ATE IN CONGRESS. 53 

tional ? We learn from Professor Brown that the 
Chief Justice said, " I had an opportunity to see 
Mr. Choate and witness his powers as an advocate, 
very early, when he first opened his office in Dan- 
vers ; and when I had scarcely heard his name 
mentioned." "As he was previously unknown to 
us by reputation, and regarding him, as we did, as 
a young lawyer just commencing practice in a 
country town, we were much and very agreeably 
surprised at the display of his powers. It appeared 
to me that he then manifested much of that keen 
legal discrimination ; of the acuteness, skill, and 
comprehensive view of the requirements of his 
case, in the examination of witnesses ; and that 
clearness and force in presenting questions, both 
of fact and of law, by which he was so much dis- 
tinguished in his subsequent brilliant professional 



career." 



It further appears that the taste, which it is 
said Mr. Choate created for his peculiar style, must 
have been of sudden growth. His first juries un- 
derstood him, his early trials, triumphs ; and the 
people, when he appeared before great assemblies, 
a stranger, hung upon his lips with breathless in- 
terest. He was master of the pathetic in oral 
discourse, and by that power the world has been 
moved. He always adapted himself to the oc- 
casion, and went to the marrow of the business in 



54 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

hand. Professor Brown mentions the favor with 
which his first speech in Congress was received. 
Thus, Benjamin Hardin, member of Congress from 
Kentucky, indisposed to hear others upon the side 
of a question he intended to advocate, was about 
to leave as Mr. Choate rose to speak, but having 
lingered a moment, and noticed the tone of his 
voice, was constrained to stay, and said, " I was 
captivated by the power of his eloquence, and 
found myself wholly unable to move until the 
last word of his beautiful speech had been ut- 
tered." So, as Mr. Everett has it, a Western 
member said, " He was the most persuasive speaker 
I ever heard." After hearing Mr. Choate in the 
Senate, James Buchanan, replying to him, said, 
" It is the first appearance of the Senator in de- 
bate here, and, judging of others by myself, I 
must say that those who have listened to him once 
will be anxious to hear him again." 

He was heard quite early before the Supreme 
Court at Washington : Mr. Webster was with him ; 
Randolph and Whipple opposed. Mr. Choate's 
argument is said to have made a strong impres- 
sion upon all the judges. Judge Catron said, " I 
have heard the most eminent advocates, but he 
surpasses them all." A member of the New York 
bar, speaking of the address of which Mr. Van 
Cott and Dr. Adams have written, said, " The peo- 



UNCONSCIOUS APPLAUSE. 55 

pie could not keep their seats, but kept clapping 
and applauding without being conscious of it." 

Under date of March 1, 1852, Mr. Webster, 
writing from New York to Mr. Havens, said, " Mr. 
Choate must be here Friday evening. The idea 
of hearing him is universally received with the 
greatest enthusiasm. He must come ; do not fail 
to persuade him to do so. If he should not, there 
will be a disappointment not to be appeased." 

Mr. Webster knew that Mr. Choate could speak 
without special preparation ; that the people would 
understand him; and that no one could fill the 
place which had been assigned to him. 

Before attempting to correct an error which 
confronts us in book form, touching Mr. Choate's 
natural gifts for oratory, as compared with the 
gifts of some others, I cite the opinion of a compe- 
tent critic, Hon. Alexander H. Stephens. 

In 1843, when Mr. Stephens was a member of 
Congress, he heard Mr. Choate in the Senate for 
the first time. He was speaking on the question 
of terminating the joint occupancy of Oregon. 
Mr. Stephens says, " Every one was enraptured 
with his eloquence." He adds, " Ever after this 
speech I never let an opportunity go by to hear 
Mr. Choate. I consider him the most interesting 
man for impassioned oratory I ever heard. He 
had a faculty which few men possess, of never tir- 



56 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

ing his hearers. Several years after, I heard him 
in the Supreme Court argue the case of the boun- 
dary line between Rhode Island and Massachu- 
setts. It was as dull a case as any ordinary land- 
ejectment suit. I was at a loss to understand how 
Mr. Choate could interest an audience under such 
circumstances. The court had been occupied five 
days by some of the ablest lawyers. The room 
was thronged to hear Mr. Choate's reply. From 
the moment he commenced, he enchained the au- 
dience and enlivened the dull subject by apt his- 
torical allusions and pleasing illustrations. The 
logical connection of his argument was excellent, 
and so well-arranged that in two hours he had 
finished a thorough argument which was inter- 
spersed throughout with sublime imagery. Every 
paragraph was as the turning of a kaleidoscope, 
where new and brilliant images are presented at 
every turn. At the conclusion of that speech, I 
was confirmed in the opinion that he was the 
greatest orator I ever heard, — in this respect 
greater than Calhoun, Clay, or Webster." 

A correspondent, long intimate with Mr. Choate, 
and having the best means of forming opinions as 
to his natural gifts, calls my attention to a work 
with an auriferous title which I had overlooked. 1 

1 In his letter, Professor Sanborn says, " Colonel Parker, in his 
Golden Age of American Orators, a work much read by students, 



CHOATE'S RIVALS IN ORATORY. 57 

On taking up the book, I learn that Mr. Choate 
was " the first and foremost of made orators," but 
"was not a natural orator — a born orator," — 
though " Chatham and Patrick Henry were nat- 
ural orators of superior order, and Henry Clay 
was of the same school." 

The statement that Choate was not a natural 
orator would disturb no one who could accept the 
suggestion that Dr. Johnson was not a natural 
critic, or Faraday a born chemist. The inference 
would be that each of them had to " toil terribly " 

attempts to prove that Mr. Choate was not ' a natural orator,' like 
Henry and Clay. I think that Mr. Choate's early history refutes 
that theory. I learned from Professor Shurtleff, his teacher, some- 
thing of his eloquence in college. He then gives an extract from 
Choate's Valedictory Address, which, so far as I can judge, indi- 
cates the freedom and range of thought and the felicity of expres- 
sion that might distinguish an orator ' to the manner born,' and 
adds, ' In this brief paragraph are the key-notes of his life — attach- 
ment to friends, love of learning, and admiration of nature. The 
Professor also mentions two circumstances which illustrate the 
character of the address and the effect of its delivery, from which it 
might be inferred that, if nature ever "tried her prentice hand " in 
fashioning a complete orator, she did so with young Choate. He 
says that when Choate spoke, " His pathos drew tears from many 
who were not used to the melting mood." Also that "One rustic 
maiden was there from Norwich, Vt. She was all ears, eyes, and 
heart ; she gazed and wept. On the following Monday, while bend- 
ing over the wash-tub, she said, ' Mother, you can't think how 
pretty that young man who had the valedictory, spoke. He was 
so interesting that I cried; and, law!' she added, holding up her 
checkered apron to her eyes, ' I can't help crying now, only think- 
ing on 't.' " 



58 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

in climbing up to the eminence attained. The 
idea is as simple as that the tillage of the soil 
makes possible the harvest. But we are disturbed 
when told that some men — Chatham, Henry, and 
Clay — were, as distinguished from Choate, nat- 
ural, or born orators. 

English authors have paid due attention to the 
preparatory studies of Lord Chatham and of his 
son. Nature, prodigal in gifts, left to each the 
common legacy of toil as the condition of his be- 
coming an orator. We are told that " The best 
clew to Pitt's (Chatham's) own mental tasks, more 
especially in the field of oratory, is afforded by 
those which he enjoined to this favorite son." We 
are also told, on the authority of Stanhope, that 
" The son ascribed his lucid order of reasoning to 
his early study of the Aristotelian logic, and his 
ready choice of words to his father's practice in 
making him every day, after reading over to him- 
self some paper on the classics, translate it aloud 
and continuously into English prose." As to Pat- 
rick Henry, I would abate none of the praise that 
can be bestowed upon him consistently with na- 
ture and with experience. But it may be observed 
that, like many fluent speakers, he had acquired 
great experience by talking " an infinite deal of 
nothing " up to the hour when the vision of our 
independence, to be achieved by war, opened be- 



VIEWS OF ISAAC GRANT THOMPSON. 59 

fore him as an apocalypse, transformed his spirit, 
and gave a prophetic tone to his utterances. As 
to Henry Clay, I need only recall his efforts in 
the debating society to cultivate a habit of speak- 
ing, and his confession, made long after, to a class 
of students, that he owed his " success in life to 
the habit, early formed and for some years con- 
tinued, of reading daily in a book of history or 
science, and declaiming the substance of what he 
had read in some solitary place." In this, Mr. Clay 
was not peculiar. Wheaton, in his life of William 
Pinkney, says that " He always continued to de- 
claim in private." 

But in the chapter " On the Study of Forensic 
Eloquence," which Mr. Isaac Grant Thompson has 
inserted in his edition of " Warren's Law Studies " 

— perfecting the work by the scholarly treatment 
of an important topic which Warren had neglected 

— illustrative instances are given. He regards 
" the opinion that excellence in speaking is a gift 
of nature, and not the result of patient and per- 
sistent labor and study," as mischievous ; and 
happily enforces that view by referring to the 
studious efforts of Cicero, Chatham, and Fox, Cur- 
ran, Choate, and others. Of Choate, he says, " Fo- 
rensic rhetoric was the great study of his life, and 
he pursued it with a patience, a steadiness, a zeal, 
equal to that of Chatham and Curran." He re- 



60 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

minds us that Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, 
carried on the study of oratory with the utmost 
zeal, and that a friend had caught him in " the 
act of practicing before a glass, while Pope (the 
poet) sat by to aid him, in the character of an in- 
structor," and adds, " Such are the arts by which 
are produced those results that the uninitiated as- 
cribe to genius." 

This matter is of present interest, as I would 
not have the student adopt the notion that Mr. 
Choate was goaded on in his studies by a sense of 
want of which other great orators had not been 
conscious. Nor should he regard the statement 
that Chatham and others were natural orators as 
signifying anything more than that they possessed 
gifts favorable to the cultivation of eloquence. A 
good memory and ready command of language, 
fine and quick perception, delicate wit and fancy, 
a fervid imagination, an exquisite sense of the 
beautiful, a voice sweetly tormenting the hearer, 
even in the remembrance of it, a graceful and im- 
pressive manner, — all of which Mr. Choate had, 
— however important as prerequisites, do not 
qualify the orator. It is his office to instruct, 
persuade, and convince ; but without study there 
can be no knowledge, without knowledge no ar- 
gument, without argument no real influence in 
the discussion and disposition of public affairs. In 



CRITICAL AND EXACTING AUDIENCES. 61 

the courts and in legislative and popular assem- 
blies, the question certain to arise is, whether the 
speaker is master of his subject in its substance, 
details, and relations. The persons addressed may 
distinguish immature from ripe thought ; informa- 
tion from knowledge ; mere impressions from ex- 
perience. They know that, while the voice may 
be trained for oral discourse, as it may be for 
music, the mind should have a corresponding cul- 
ture. Many of them, pitiless as critics, would ac- 
cept the statement of Cicero that the orator must 
possess a knowledge of many sciences, without 
which a mere flow of words is vain ; and would 
agree with Dr. Johnson, when he checked the 
praise bestowed on a fine speaker, not often heard, 
as having great resources, " You cannot know as 
yet ; the pump works well, but how are we to 
know whether it is supplied by a spring or a 
reservoir ? ' Mr. Choate's view of the studies 
proper to the orator was most exacting. His ideal 
of excellence in oratory, considering it as one of 
the fine arts, may have been so high that he 
never could have fully satisfied his own aspira- 
tions. But, in his lectures and addresses, his sen- 
timents are given in the spirit of an unfaltering 
disciple ; his precepts have an electric touch — 
glow like stars in the firmament of thought. He 
knew what he taught, in large measure, and in 



62 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

minute details. He fortified himself by appeals 
to history, to experience, and to natural laws. 
The moral element in his topics, however obscure, 
never eludes his grasp ; the most rugged event 
or feature he touches palpitates as with a spirit 
of life and beauty. The philosophy of history is 
taught suggestively, not by a tedious process, but 
flashes upon the page as a revelation. His illus- 
trations have a logical flavor; his inferences the 
certainty of mathematical deductions ; and his lan- 
guage, when rising to the utmost fervor, is tem- 
pered by earnest and constant attention to prac- 
tical affairs. The student may, therefore, follow 
him with assured steps. Indeed, no student should 
fail to study addresses like those on " The Colonial 
Age of New England," on " The Power of a State 
Developed by Mental Culture," on " The Conser- 
vative Force of the American Bar," and on " The 
Eloquence of Revolutionary Periods." 

He who has given his days and nights to De- 
mosthenes and Cicero, Thucydides and Tacitus, 
will find his apprehensions quickened, and the 
wealth he has garnered up in his mind enriched 
by the spirit of Mr. Choate's expositions. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Vacations for Reading. — Studies with Books and without 
them. — Conversations with Mr. Pratt and Mr. Carpenter. 
— Solicitude as to Improvement. — Taste, Illustrations of. — 
Formation of Character. — Colonial Experience. 

It has been considered strange that, with all 
his work, Mr. Choate could find time for classical 
study. The explanation may be found in his in- 
tellectual methods, and in his mental activity and 
economy of time. 

In his address at the dedication of the Peabody 
Institute, he gave advice to those who were in 
pursuit of knowledge under difficulties and re- 
straints, in which he seems to have drawn upon 
his own experience. He reminded them that va- 
cations for the still air of delightful studies were 
fragments of time, — half-hours before the morn- 
ing or midday meal was ready, a rainy after- 
noon, the priceless evening, — and that such were 
the chances they could borrow or create for the 
luxury of reading. Mr. Choate himself gave to 
study the time he might well have given, the time 
others gave, to repose. He could read some verses 



64 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

in the Greek Testament, a few lines in Virgil, in 
Bacon, or in Burke, and go out to his walk repeat- 
ino- these lessons in their order and turns. I do 
not know that he ever advised others to adopt 
this method, but it was wisely chosen for himself. 
He could thus lessen the burden of study by so 
chanotfne: its forms as to combine intellectual and 
physical exercise, and, in passing from one form of 
study to another, find relaxation. 

Such may have been his habits when he was 
young, and in practice at Salem. A correspond- 
ent of Mr. Parker says that, in Mr. Choate's long, 
solitary walks in the pastures, his " full and 
melodious voice was sometimes heard by other 
strollers in those solitudes." In his " Recollections 
of Mr. Choate," Mr. E. P. Whipple refers to this 
habit of out-door study, and says that, when he 
met Mr. Choate in one of his contemplative moods, 
he made it a point of honor not to interrupt his 
meditations. 

In the last conversation I had with the late 
Matt. H. Carpenter, Mr. Choate's special studies 
with his books and without them were mentioned. 
Among other things, Mr. Carpenter said, " It was 
one of the efforts of Mr. Choate's professional life 
to extend and perfect what he called a lawyer-like 
memory. In his view, a mere every-day memory, 
left to take care of itself, would not enable an 



CULTIVATION OF MEMORY. 65 

advocate so to hold in mind as instantly to recall, 
for use, the facts disclosed in a long trial before a 
jury, and the name, appearance, and manner, the 
speech, too ready or too reluctant, of each witness 
examined." He also said, " Mr. Choate had found 
that special kind of memory improved by reading 
fragments of authors on divers disconnected sub- 
jects, and recalling and repeating them after his 
books had been laid aside." 

As Mr. Choate's faith in study was unqualified, 
we can well believe that, to one who spoke of a 
fine, intellectual performance as the result of acci- 
dent or inspiration, he said, " Nonsense ! you might 
as well drop the Greek alphabet on the ground 
and expect to pick up the ' Iliad.' " 

I am indebted to Mr. Edward Ellerton Pratt 
for some interesting particulars. He says, " Mr. 
Choate was the most untiring worker I ever met. 
He was up by five o'clock in the morning, as a 
rule, made a cup of tea for himself, worked a while 
over his books, went out for a walk, came home 
to breakfast, went to business at nine, worked all 
day, and perhaps was before some legislative com- 
mittee for an argument in the evening; and I 
have known him to be all that time without 
taking any food. Indeed, I have seen a check 
for half a dollar which he had given at the close 
of such a day, when, having no money with him, 

5 



66 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

he had become conscious of the need of refresh- 
ment. 

" When the late James T. Fields was collecting 
and editing Thomas De Quincey's works, he showed 
Mr. Choate an article which had appeared in some 
magazine, with no external evidence as to the au- 
thor. On looking over it, Mr. Choate said it was 
written by De Quincey. Mr. Fields then wrote to 
De Quincey, who answered that he had not written 
the paper, had never thought of the subject-mat- 
ter of it. With some exultation, Mr. Fields showed 
that letter to Mr. Choate, who said, i Never you 
mind ; let me have the article again, and I will go 
over it more carefully.' He did so, and the next 
day Mr. Choate wrote him, ' De Quincey did write 
it, De Quincey to the contrary, notwithstanding.' 
After a time, De Quincey sent to Mr. Fields the 
original manuscript of the article, with a letter 
stating that he had found it among old papers ; 
and, as it was the work of his pen, he must confess 
the authorship, though all recollection of it had 
passed away. 

" In his studies, Mr. Choate kept pace with the 
colleges, and with modern thought as there illus- 
trated. He used to buy the text-books of Harvard 
and Yale, beginning with the Freshman year, and, 
in effect, graduating with the students. I once 
asked him why he did this. He said, ' I don't like 



MODE AND METHOD OF TRANSLATION. 67 

to have those young fellows come out of college 
crowing over me ; they fresh and bright, I dull 
and rusty ; we must habitually go back to the 
elements, first principles, and note new applica- 
tions of them by those whose special business it 
is to teach." 

In his zealous striving after higher culture, Mr. 
Choate had a steadfast belief in the value of trans- 
lation as an intellectual discipline, and as a means 
of testing the power and spirit of our words as 
equivalents for the words of other languages. 
Speaking of Mr. Choate's method in translating, 
Professor Parsons says, "He would return day 
after day to the same passage, until he had ex- 
hausted the resources of the language in giving to 
the sentence exactness, strength, and elegance." 

In the " Reminiscences," Mr. Parker reports 
Mr. Choate as saying, " Translation should be pur- 
sued to bring to mind, and to employ, all the words 
you already own, and to tax and torment invention 
and discovery, and the very deepest memory for 
additional, rich, and admirably expressive words. 
In translating, the student should not put down 
a word until he has thought of at least six syno- 
nyms, or varieties of expression, for the idea. I 
would have him fastidious and eager enough to go, 
not unfrequently, half round his library pulling 
down books to hunt up a word — the word." 



68 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CIIOATE. 

By this kind of work, Mr. Choate sought to per- 
fect his knowledge of things as well as of words. 
Thus, he says, that, in translating Cicero's " Cati- 
line Orations," he had in view the matter and the 
manner of a great master of speech, and a remark- 
able portion of history. So, also, he translated 
Thucydides for the purpose of deducing lessons of 
history and applying them to America. 

In his Journal, Mr. Choate recalls with fidelity, 
as if for his own encouragement or admonition, 
his studies in various departments. At times he 
seems hopeful, almost , glad in view of what he 
perceives he may attain ; at other times, he ap- 
pears sad, as if his studies had been partial and 
inadequate. As an instance, after he had gar- 
nered up in his mind and heart such wealth of 
learning as only one so devoted and receptive 
could acquire, we find him saying : — 

" I have written only this translation of Quin- 
tilian since Saturday; professional engagements 
have hindered me. But I have carefully read a 
page or two in Johnson's Dryden and a scene or 
two of i Antony and Cleopatra ' every morning — 
marking any felicity or available peculiarity of 
phrase — have launched Ulysses from the Isle of 
Calypso, and brought him in sight of Phseacia, 
kept along in Tacitus, and am reading a pretty 
paper in the < Memoirs ' on the old men of Ho- 



SPECIAL STUDIES. 69 

mer. I read Homer more easily and with more 
appreciation, though with no helps but Cowper 
and Donneo;an's Lexicon. Fox and Canning's 
speeches are a more professional study, not use- 
less, not negligently pursued. Alas, alas ! there is 
no time to realize the dilating and burning idea 
of excellence and eloquence inspired by the great 
gallery of the immortals in which I walk ! ' 

Again, he says, " How difficult it is to arrest 
these moments, to aggregate them, to till them, 
as it were, to make them day by day extend our 
knowledge, refine our tastes, accomplish our whole 
culture ! " 

His solicitude as to the improvement of his 
taste is freely confessed. Thus he says : — 

"I have been long in the practice of reading 
daily some first-class English writer, chiefly for 
the copia verborum, to avoid sinking into cheap 
and bald fluency, to give elevation, energy, sono- 
rousness, and refinement to my vocabulary. Yet 
with this object I would unite other and higher 
objects, — the acquisition of things, — taste, criti- 
cism, facts of biography, images, sentiments." 

In the same spirit, as to a contemplated course 
of study, he says : — 

" The investigations it will exact ; the collec- 
tions of authorities ; the constant use of the pen, 
the translations, the speculations, ought to consti- 



70 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

tute an admirable exercise in reasoning, in taste, 
in rhetoric, as well as in history." 

Again, noting some classical works he must 
have and use on a journey, he says, " This, lest 
taste should sleep and die, for which no compen- 
sations shall pay." 

Keferring to a course of reading considered too 
desultory, he states the benefits thus : — 

" No doubt taste has been improved, sentiments 
enlarged, language heightened, and many of the 
effects, inevitable, insensible, and abiding, of lib- 
eral culture, impressed on the spirit." 

Mr. Choate's taste was exacting and severe in 
a sense not perhaps to the fancy of some senti- 
mental scholars ; of this a few words from Chief 
Justice Chapman may be illustrative. He says of 
Mr. Choate, " He was talking of Burke's speeches, 
of which he was known to be a great admirer, and 
remarked to a friend of mine who was extolling 
Burke above all other men, that he thought on 
the whole that the most eloquent and mellifluous 
talk that was ever put together in the English 
language was the speech of Mr. Standfast in the 
river. I went home and read the speech soon 
afterwards, and I confess I appreciated John Bun- 
yan's eloquence as I never had done before." 

In a plea for mental culture Mr. Choate refers 
to John Quincy Adams, " the old man eloquent," 



ADVICE TO A STUDENT. 71 

and finds him using " the happiest word, the 
aptest literary illustration, the exact detail, the 
precise rhetorical instrument, the case demands." 
Mr. Choate had a clear conception of the means 
by which such powers of argument might possibly 
be acquired. His theory of preparatory study was 
as exacting as that of Hugh Miller, who thought 
that an anatomical acquaintance with the bones 
and muscles was necessary for the painter who 
represents the human figure, and that he who 
describes natural scenery should know the strata 
and the science of the rocks. 

In a letter of advice to a student, — Richard S. 
Storrs, Jr., — Mr. Choate says, " As immediately 
preparatory to the study of the law, I should fol- 
low the usual suggestion, to review thoroughly 
English history, — constitutional history in Hallam 
particularly, and American constitutional and civil 
history in Pitkin and Story. Rutherford's In- 
stitutes, and the best course of moral philosophy 
you can find, will be very valuable introductory 
consolidating matter. Aristotle's Politics, and all 
of Edmund Burke's works, and all of Cicero's 
works would form an admirable course of read- 
ing, ' a library of eloquence and reason,' to form 
the sentiments and polish the tastes, and fertilize 
and enlarge the mind of a young man aspiring to 
be a lawyer and statesman. Cicero and Burke I 



72 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

would know by heart ; both superlatively great, — 
the latter the greatest, living in a later age, be- 
longing to the modern mind and genius, though 
the former had more power over an audience, — 
both knew everything. 

" I would read every day one page at least, — 
more if you can, — in some fine English writer, 
solely for elegant style and expression. William 
Pinkney said to a friend of mine, ' He never read 
a fine sentence in any author without committing 
it to memory.' The result was decidedly the most 
splendid and most powerful English spoken style I 
ever heard." 

A like result may be traced to Mr. Choate him- 
self. Perhaps no great orator ever owed less to 
borrowed thoughts and forms of speech, or, in a 
higher and better sense, more to the ministration 
of other minds. But the benefits were absorbed by 
a process as natural as that by which trees gather 
nutriment from the sun, air, rain, and from a gen- 
erous soil. In reading him, we are reminded of 
his favorite authors. As, in hearing a preacher 
full of divine instruction, one may perceive indi- 
cations of his familiarity with the Scriptures, so 
Mr. Choate reveals his intimate communion with 
master minds. 

It was perhaps well for him that some degree 
of poverty fell to his early lot. I believe he 



FORMATION OF CHARACTER. 73 

would have chosen such a lot, had the choice been 
left to him. He valued, as few men have valued, 
the discipline and the strength which came as the 
fruits of toil and study ; the faith and the con- 
stancy of those who, having sown the seed, could 
wait patiently for the harvest. He appears to 
have had a clear conception of the spiritual mean- 
ing which resides in material things, and of the 
law of compensation that governs men in all their 
relations, and makes or mars their fortunes. 

To illustrate his views as to the formation of 
character and the elements which may minister to 
its strength, I quote a few detached passages from 
one of his lectures. 

After having referred to the planting of the 
Colonies along our coast, in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, and to events which furnished the matter of 
colonial history, he says, " I regard those events 
altogether as forming a vast and various series of 
influences, — a long, austere, effective course of 
discipline and instruction, — by which the early 
settlers and their children were slowly and pain- 
fully trained to achieve their independence, to 
form their constitutions of State governments and 
of Federal government, and to act usefully and 
greatly their part as a separate political commu- 
nity in the high places of the world. 

" It has been said that there was never a great 



74 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

character, — never a truly strong, masculine, com- 
manding character, — which was not made so by 
successive struggles with great difficulties. Such 
is the general rule of the moral world, undoubt- 
edly. All history, all biography, verify and illus- 
trate it, and none more remarkably than our own. 
It has seemed to me probable that if the Puritans, 
on their arrival here, had found a home like that 
they left, and a social system made ready for them, 
— if they had found the forest felled, roads con- 
structed, rivers bridged, fields sown, houses built, 
a rich soil, a bright sun, and a balmy air ; if Eng- 
land had covered over their infancy with- her 
mighty wing, spared charters, widened trade, and 
knit child to mother by parental policy, — it is 
probable that that impulse of high mind, and that 
unconquerable constancy of the first immigrants, 
might have subsided before the epoch of the drama 
of the Revolution. Their children might have 
grown light, luxurious, vain, and the sacred fire 
of liberty, cherished by the fathers in the times 
of the Tudors and Stuarts, might have died away 
in the hearts of a feeble posterity. 

" Ours was a different destiny. I do not mean 
to say that the whole colonial age was a scene of 
universal and constant suffering and labor, and 
that there was no repose. But in its general 
course, it was a time of suffering and of privation, 



INFLUENCE OF LOVE FOR LIBERTY. 75 

of poverty or mediocrity of fortune, of sleepless 
nights, grave duties, serious aims ; and I say it 
was a trial better fitted to train up a nation ' in 
true wisdom, virtue, magnanimity, and the likeness 
of God,' — better fitted to form temperate habits, 
strong character, resolute spirits, and all the radi- 
ant train of public and private virtues which stand 
before the stars of the throne of liberty, — than 
any similar period in the history of any nation, or 
of any but one, that ever existed. 

" The necessaries of freedom, if I may say so, 
— its plainer food and homelier garments and 
humbler habitations, — were theirs. Its luxuries 
and refinements, its festivals, its lettered and so- 
cial glory, its loftier port and prouder look and 
richer graces, were the growth of a later day; 
these came in with independence. Here was lib- 
erty enough to make them love it for itself, and 
to fill them with those lofty and kindred senti- 
ments which are at once its fruit and its nutri- 
ment, and safeguard in the soul of man. But their 
liberty was still incomplete, and it was constantly 
in danger from England ; and these two circum- 
stances had a powerful effect in increasing that 
love and confirming those sentiments. It was a 
condition precisely adapted to keep liberty, as a 
subject of thought and feeling and desire, every 
moment in mind. Every moment they were com- 



76 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

paring what they had possessed with what they 
wanted and had a right to ; they were restive and 
impatient and ill at ease ; a galling wakefulness 
possessed their faculties like a spell. Had they 
been wholly slaves, they had lain still and slept. 
Had they been wholly free, that eager hope, that 
fond desire, that longing after a great, distant, 
yet practical good would have given way to the 
placidity and luxury and carelessness of complete 
enjoyment ; and that energy and wholesome agi- 
tation of mind would have gone down like an 
ebb-tide. As it was, the whole vast body of 
waters all over its surface, down to its sunless, 
utmost depths, was heaved and shaken and puri- 
fied by the spirit that moved above it and through 
it, and gave it no rest, though the moon waned 
and the winds were in their caves ; they were like 
the disciples of the old and bitter philosophy of 
Paganism, who had been initiated into one stage 
of the greater mysteries, and who had come to 
the door, closed and written over with strange 
characters, which led up to another. They had 
tasted the truth and they burned for a fuller 
draught ; a partial revelation of that which shall 
be hereafter had dawned ; and their hearts 
throbbed eager, yet not without apprehension, to 
look upon the glories of the perfect day. Some 
of the mysteries of God, of Nature, of Man, of the 



TRIUMPH OF PATIENCE AND ENERGY. 77 

Universe, had been unfolded ; might they, by 
prayer, by abstinence, by virtue, by retirement, 
by contemplation, entitle themselves to read an- 
other page in the clasped and awful volume ? 

" How glorious a triumph of patience, energy, 
perseverance, intelligence, and faith ! And then, 
how powerfully, and in how many ways, must the 
fatigues, privations, interruptions, and steady ad- 
vance, and ultimate completion of that long day's 
work have reacted on the character and the mind 
of those who performed it ! How could such a 
people ever again, if ever they had been, be idle 
or frivolous or giddy or luxurious ? With what 
a resistless accession of momentum must they turn 
to every new, manly, honest, and worthy labor ! 
How truly must they love the land for which they 
have done so much ! How ardently must they 
desire to see it covered over with the beauty of 
holiness and the glory of freedom, as with a gar- 
ment ! With what a just and manly self -approba- 
tion must they look back on such labors and such 
success ; and how great will such pride make any 
people ! " 

Thus it appears that this man, so delicate, re- 
fined, emotional, with a keen sense of what was 
sweet and beautiful in life, sentiment, and study, 
was not the less able to deal with stern and sober 
subjects, to appreciate the trials and struggles of 



78 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

those who labored in obscurity with no embellish- 
ment to their lives, save such as came from the 
performance of humble yet important duties. He 
loved to dwell upon and illustrate such examples, 
and may have found strength and encouragement 
in the conviction that the toil and service which 
conferred benefits upon others would most surely 
enrich himself. 



CHAPTER V. 

Classical Studies. — Ancient Greece. — The Saxons. — The 
Latin. — English in India. — Macaulay's Service. — As to 
Equivalents in Saxon for Some of our "Words. 

By way of review, and as a solace in weary 
hours, Mr. Choate's communion with the classics 
was continued to the end of his life. He found 
therein some of his chief delights and consola- 
tions ; and, in final token of his appreciation of 
them, the " Iliad " and the " Georgics ' : were 
among the books selected as companions in his 
last voyage. 

It may be thought that such studies were not 
wisely chosen or pursued. Such, no doubt, is the 
popular impression. Indeed, some authors of re- 
pute have declared that an acquaintance with 
what is called the dead languages need not be 
sought by those who wish to excel in the use of 
English. In support of this opinion, reference is 
made to instances of good, exceedingly good, 
English, written by men without classical train- 
ing, — Franklin, Erskine, Shakespeare, Bunyan, 
and some others. 



80 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Of these authors, Bunyan alone is well cited. 
He was, indeed, exceptional. In a divine frenzy, 
he could look into his heart and write. 

It is to be remembered that the style of Frank- 
lin was formed by the study of " The Spectator," 
and that of Erskine by intense devotion to Mil- 
ton and Burke ; and that, in seeking to acquire 
the spirit and diction of authors whose English 
was the representative and outgrowth of classical 
study, these men reaped the benefit at a single 
remove. 

The reference to Shakespeare, as an example, 
is not fortunate. The saying of Ben Jonson's 
that Shakespeare possessed " small Latin and less 
Greek," may be taken as proof that he knew 
something of those languages. Of his early youth 
and studies, we know nothing ; and, where much 
is left to conjecture, one supposition is often as 
good as another. In speaking of " Love's Labour 's 
Lost," Coleridge refers to the strong presumption 
which the diction and allusions of that play afford 
of Shakespeare's scholarly habits, and Mr. Charles 
Knight suggests that his happy employment of 
ancient mythology lends countenance to the sup- 
position. As to the " Comedy of Errors," Knight 
says, " The commentators have puzzled them- 
selves, after their usual fashion, with the evidence 
this play undoubtedly presents of Shakespeare's 



SHAKESPEARE ASSISTED BY OTHERS. 81 

ability to read Latin, and their dogged resolution 
to maintain the opinion that, in an age of gram- 
mar-schools, our poet never could have attained 
that common accomplishment." ^ 

In a loving and profound estimate of the ele- 
ments of greatness peculiar to Shakespeare, Em- 
erson notices the fact that, when he came from 
Stratford to London, "A great body of stage- 
plays, of all dates and writers, existed in manu- 
script," and that Shakespeare altered and made 
them his own. He says, " In ' Henry VIII.,' I 
think I see plainly the cropping out of the orig- 
inal rock on which his own finer stratum was laid. 
The first play was written by a superior, thought- 
ful man, with a vicious ear. I can mark his lines, 
and know well their cadence." Emerson accepts 
Malone's laborious computations in regard to the 
first, second, and third parts of " Henry VI," in 
which " out of 6,043 lines, 1,771 were written by 
some author preceding Shakespeare; 2,373 by 
him, on the foundation laid by his predecessors ; 
and 1,899 were entirely his own." Thus, in 
working upon materials, excellent in themselves, 
the outcome of many other minds, — the minds, 
it may be, of students in history, in law, in medi- 
cine, and in the classics, — Shakespeare adopted 
parts of the plays which now bear his name. His 
genius enabled him to make mellow music of what 

6 



^ 






82 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

had been discordant. In the mass of preexisting 
plays and tales from which he drew, there must 
have been the work of some minds of classic lore, 
so that if we were compelled to suppose that he 
had none of it, yet his works, being eclectic, are 
not fair specimens of the results attainable with- 
out the aid of classical studies. 

The theory as to the value of such studies which 
contrasts the practice of the ancient Greeks in the 
use of their language with the treatment given to 
the Saxon and the English need not here receive 
much attention. It is said that the Greeks studied 
no language but their own, and, regarding other 
tongues as barbarous, did not borrow from them. 
The inference sought to be drawn would seem to 
be that a like course should have been pursued in 
the culture and use of the Anglo-Saxon. 

It is to be remembered that, when Ancient 
Greece became known to the modern world, her 
language had been so perfected that aid from 
other peoples was not needed ; and that the 
contributions and the culture which, in ante- 
Homeric times, had given supernal grace and 
beauty to her speech cannot be stated or defined. 
It is also to be remembered that after the facts 
and fables found in Homer had been considered, 
after such scholars as Porson and Choate, in the 
spirit of their studies, standing face to face with 



THE GREEKS OF DUAL ORIGIN. 83 

the Greek, could make his felicities of speech 
their own, an unappeasable curiosity as to the 
early progress of the race remained, as it will 
remain forever. 

Much curious research and ingenious specula- 
tion have been displayed in the endeavor to trace 
the early history of the Greeks, and to determine 
their origin. All the tests afforded by philology, 
ethnology, and geography have been applied. 
On philological grounds mainly, Mr. Gladstone 
ascribes a dual origin to the Greek people like 
that of the English. The general belief of his- 
torians is, that a race known as Pelasgians, at a 
period antecedent to written history, spread from 
the south over Greece and Italy. They are de- 
scribed as a dark-eyed, dark-haired, sw r arthy, 
heavily-built race, industrious, patient, excelling 
in agriculture and architecture. These character- 
istics lend force to the supposition that they came 
from Egypt; and that those of them who went 
to Italy, more remote from the early centres of 
population, developed the best capabilities of that 
race, and, by their substantial qualities, laid the 
foundation for Roman greatness. But, as to 
Greece, another race, the Hellenic, was infused 
among the Pelasgi, and grafted upon the stock. 
They were tall, light-complexioned, light-haired, 
blue-eyed, enthusiastic hunters and warriors, and 



84 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

came probably from a mountainous country, by 
northward-lying paths, through Thrace and Mace- 
donia, into Northern Greece, forcing themselves 
among the Pelasgi, and by their active and aggres- 
sive qualities becoming dominant in public affairs. 
This infusion of new blood would seem to have 
given rise to what, properly speaking, may be 
called the Greek people, which thus arose from 
the mingling of different tribes on Grecian soil. 
To this admixture are to be ascribed the differ- 
ences which subsist between the Greek and the 
Latin tongue, and the wide divergence of the 
Greek from that earlier speech, the foundation 
of both, of which the Sanskrit is believed to be 
the nearest representative. The Greek would ap- 
pear to be a composite language. In later times, 
fixed by custom or pride, it became intolerant of 
foreign words. This was a departure from the 
principle on which it was formed ; — to say other- 
wise is to beg the question against both evidence 
and probability. 

Although it is impossible to trace the develop- 
ment of the Greek tongue, it must be assumed 
that in its inception and growth it was governed 
by universal laws. From a rude state it was car- 
ried forward to a more perfect condition by cen- 
turies of tasteful culture, and, during all that long 
probation, the Greeks, as other aspiring people 



ACQUIRED WEALTH. 85 

have done, profited by external and available 
means of improvement. As the cultivation and 
refinement of a people may be known by its lan- 
guage, laws, and works of art, it may be worth 
noting that the early memorials of the Greek 
race, as lately brought to light by the researches 
of Schliemann and others, show a primitive, al- 
most barbarous, condition of the arts, which it 
is fair to suppose was accompanied by a similar 
condition of their speech. It is evident that the 
growth from the rude conception and clumsy ex- 
ecution of early days to the exquisite grace, sym- 
metry, and freedom of later Greek art must have 
consumed centuries, — time for perfecting and 
unifying the language, that most enduring token 
of their civilization. 

Mr. Choate had intended to write a history of 
Greece, and to that end his special studies were 
for a time directed. But, constrained by profes- 
sional and other duties, he abandoned that design. 
How r reluctantly he did so may be inferred from 
the fascination which afterwards held him to the 
study of the Greek genius and character. In his 
Journal he makes significant suggestions as to the 
origin and progress of that people, but he does 
not seem to think that they had rejected foreign 
aid until their language had risen to a higher de- 
gree of perfection than that of any other nation. 



86 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

The English - speaking people have not yet 
reached such supremacy. Their only hope of ever 
reaching it has been inspired by the use that could 
be made of wealth derived from alien sources. 
They have borrowed from almost every other peo- 
ple. The work of verbal adoption might have 
been easy, if, as has been said, the Anglo-Saxon 
tongue had had a craving appetite, had been ra- 
pacious of words. But it required many years of 
preparatory training to create that appetite. The 
influence came from without rather than from 
within. Indeed, the natural characteristics of the 
early people of Britain were not favorable to an 
improvement of their accustomed speech. The 
Saxons had no conceptions of beauty or grace, of 
harmony in thought or in expression ; and, when 
they could make their wants and wishes known, 
had little aptitude to find and use other and bet- 
ter words. As an offshoot of the Teutonic lan- 
guage, the Saxon dialect inherited the rough, 
hard, inflexible qualities of the parent stock. 

Need we wonder that in working upon such 
materials, in infusing life, variety, and refinement 
into a semi-barbarous tongue, it was necessary to 
sift out and cast away many rugged and fruitless 
forms of speech, and to weave in words more 
melodious and articulate ? Would it have been 
well if all the uncouth terms that came from 



UNIVERSALITY OF LATIN. 87 

Saxon lips had been retained ? What if words 
expressive of our finer feelings and aspirations, of 
our sense of grace, beauty, and harmony — words 
of progress, refinement, and civilization — had not 
been borrowed ! Those who regret that we are 
largely indebted to the Greek, Latin, and French 
must be conscious that the improvement of our 
language has kept pace with the growing intelli- 
gence of the people, and that attempts to qualify 
or dissolve that relation would be unwise and 
fruitless. 

The Latin, spoken of as a dead language, sur- 
vives in the speech of many nations, with whom 
we and our mother-country have intimate com- 
mercial relations in the Old and in the New 
World. It has been justly said that in his travels 
the Latin scholar would find few cities, however 
strange and remote, where he could not make 
himself understood by some of the inhabitants. 
The variety and the fertility of the Latin in form- 
ing compounds are important, as this quality the 
words retain when brought into other languages. 
An idea of this may be formed by counting the de- 
rivatives from a few Latin words. Thus, the terms 
derived from the verb nascor, in various forms, 
are 17 in number ; from verto 22, from leneo 23, 
tendo 29, ceclo 21, duco 20, curro 18, specio 19, 
video 14, lego 22, mitto 22, venio 17, rerjo 15, from 



88 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

capio more than 27, and from sumo, which has 
nearly the same meaning, 9 more: — 15 roots 
yielding 285 distinct terms by the use of prefixes 
and suffixes. The aid to copiousness of expres- 
sion thus afforded is self-evident, and justifies Mr. 
Choate and all others who have the taste, time, 
and opportunity for the study of that language. 

But the Saxon tongue, not thus fruitful, never 
had, and of itself never could have had, widely 
extended life and relations. Had it wholly sur- 
vived, working out its destiny in exclusive use, it 
would have made England as insular as could the 
sea itself. 

When Macaulay was in the public service in 
India, he had occasion to consider what system of 
national education should be adopted. Mr. Tre- 
velyan, in his life of Macaulay, gives the particu- 
lars. The Committee of Public Instruction, com- 
posed of ten able men, were divided in opinion, 
and for some time "All educational action had 
been at a stand." " Half of the members were 
for maintaining and extending the old scheme of 
encouraging oriental learning by stipends paid 
to students in Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic, and 
by liberal grants for the publication of works in 
those languages. The other half were in favor of 
teaching the elements of knowledge in the vernac- 
ular tongues, and the higher branches in English." 



ENGLISH FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION. 89 

The advocates of both systems were heard before 
the Supreme Council, of which Macaulay was a 
member. In due time he laid his opinion before 
the Council, and urged that the people should be 
taught in the English language. Among other 
things, he said, " Whoever knows that language 
has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth 
which all the wisest nations of the earth have 
created and hoarded in the course of ninety gen- 
erations." " Had our ancestors acted as the Com- 
mittee of Public Instruction has hitherto acted ; 
had they neglected the language of Cicero and 
Tacitus ; had they confined their attention to the 
old dialects of our own island ; had they printed 
nothing and taught nothing at the universities 
but chronicles in Anglo-Saxon and romances in 
Norman-French, would England have been what 
she now is ? What the Greek and Latin were to 
the contemporaries of More and Ascham, our 
tongue is to the people of India." His views 
prevailed. While in India, Macaulay, in a letter 
to his father, said, " Our English schools are 
flourishing wonderfully. We find it difficult — 
indeed, in some places, impossible — to provide 
instruction for all who want it. At the single 
town of Hooghly, fourteen hundred boys are 
learning: Ens-lish. The effect of this education 
on the Hindoos is prodigious. No Hindoo who 



90 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

has received an English education ever remains 
sincerely attached to his religion." 

It was fortunate for England and for the people 
of India that Macaulay could thus secure the adop- 
tion of that system of education. It was a more 
important service than was the preparation of his 
Code, in which Macaulay took great pride ; more 
important, indeed, than all his other work com- 
bined. 

To include the study of Greek and Latin in that 
scheme of national education would have been 
premature and unwise, yet even that would have 
been more wise, as tending to make an alliance 
between the English and the Indian mind possible, 
than would have been the study of the Sanskrit, 
the Persian, and the Arabic. Mr. Macaulay knew 
that the time might never come when those dusky 
students of the East would wish to study Cicero 
and Tacitus in the original, and that it would re- 
quire the culture of English in those schools for 
centuries before such a question could arise. 

It is to be confessed that even with us the study 
of the ancient languages should be recommended 
with reserve and discrimination, not simply be- 
cause the intellectual wealth mentioned by Macau- 
lay is before us in translations, ministering to a 
great degree of culture, but because, with many 
students, such a study would be a sacrifice of time 



ADVICE AS TO THE CLASSICS. 91 

and strength. Even some minds of great power 
have suffered under such studies. It would be 
hard to find stronger expressions of detestation 
than Byron used with reference to Horace, or than 
Gray, as noticed by Moore, applied to the enforced 
duty of reading Virgil. Lamartine, speaking of 
his choice of authors, says, " Among the poets the 
ones that I preferred were not the ancients, whose 
classic pages had too early been bedewed with my 
sweat and tears." But we need not seek for ex- 
amples. It is obviously unjust, it is bad economy, 
to prescribe such tasks for a student without re- 
gard to his taste, or to the course of life he is to 
pursue. Whatever his calling is to be, he must 
study his own language closely, critically, pro- 
foundly, and be conversant with the best authors 
in it. Especially must he study the Bible daily, 
and cultivate a love for its words and style. He 
may thus become a good English scholar. He 
must master many subjects of practical importance 
also, and in the history, life, and contentions of 
the world be well informed. In all this he will be 
following Mr. Choate's example. 

There is no reason to fear that too much atten- 
tion will be given to classical study. From lack 
of taste and inclination, of early training and 
agreeable association, or by reason of the nature 
and variety of studies soliciting his choice in the 



92 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

curricula of our higher schools, the student is 
likely, rather, to undervalue the claims of Latin 
and Greek. 

But he who looks forward to a life of literary 
leisure, and to the highest intellectual enjoyments 
attainable, or aspires to one of the learned pro- 
fessions, must take up the ancient classics. Such 
studies, however, are to be vigorously pursued. 
In its early stages the work is difficult and full of 
discouragements. Only after much devotion, after 
he has passed the region of toil and pain, does the 
student enter into the spirit of the language, and 
take delight in the literature. Of that delight he 
who abandons the study early feels and knows 
nothing. It is as when two travelers attempt to 
climb a mountain. In the morning mist they see 
only the steep and stony path under their feet. 
After much effort, one becomes weary and turns 
back. The other pushes on and reaches the top. 
The rising sun illumines the summit, chases the 
shadows from the valleys, and gradually takes pos- 
session of the earth. He sits bathed in a flood 
of glory never before conceived, never to be for- 
gotten. 

We are reminded of the advice, "Soak your 
mind with Cicero," — advice often repeated by 
Mr. Choate, and illustrated in his early life. 

Classical study trains the memory, the inven- 



EFFECT OF CLASSICAL STUDY. 93 

tion, the imagination, the judgment, taxing them 
all in a high degree. It furnishes thoughts, which 
yield themselves up to patient labor and ingenu- 
ity. But before they can be expressed in trans- 
lation they must be grasped and subdued. 

The student thus becomes habituated to the 
thoughts of great minds, in a sense makes them 
his own, and acquires a power for profound inves- 
tigations. It cannot be denied that the ancient 
classics, properly pursued, compel the highest dis- 
cipline of which the intellect is capable. In the 
seminaries to which students from other institu- 
tions are admitted, some of whom have had classi- 
cal training, while others have not, it is found, 
after years of difficult study, that the former show 
a marked superiority. This has been proved in 
the German schools, and the statistics are given in 
the government reports. It has been proved in 
schools of our own also. 

A critical knowledge of Latin, not difficult to 
attain, is the best preparation for the study of the 
French and other modern languages. Equipped 
with this, the acquisition of the other tongues be- 
comes easy. Latin and Greek are also great helps 
in perfecting a knowledge of the English lan- 
guage. Nowhere else do we find reflected the 
exquisite grace and beauty of the Greek mind ; 
and, when compared with the works of the great 



94 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Greek and Latin authors, those of the French and 
German appear crude and immature. 

It would be lamentable indeed if the study of 
the ancient classics in our higher schools were un- 
duly discouraged. It would, moreover, be illogi- 
cal to accept as proof that such studies are no 
longer necessary, the fact that good English has 
been written by men ignorant of Latin and Greek, 
men to whom translations of classical productions 
have given aid not easily estimated. Such men 
may not owe much directly to the classic writers, 
but who can compute their indirect indebtedness, 
since their ideals have been writers whose style 
has been formed upon the great models furnished 
by Athens and by Rome ? 

The reader may have noticed that some authors, 
while objecting to the elements of Greek and 
Latin in our language as excessive, habitually use 
words of classic derivation, and praise Saxon words 
for their brevity, simplicity, directness, manly 
vigor, and moral purity as if these words had been 
lost ; and claim that to relieve our poverty the stu- 
dent should go back to the days of Chaucer to find 
them. Yet these and other like words, treasured 
up with a wise economy, are in actual use and have 
intimate relations with the affairs of every-day life. 
But they are wanting in scope and variety. It is to 
be observed that scholars and critics, like Professor 



BORROWED TERMS. 95 

Hunt, who agree with Sharon Turner in extolling 
the extent and power of the Anglo-Saxon lan- 
guage, have not told us how to find therein equiv- 
alents for such familiar words as religion, line, 
face, relation, common, animal, nature, page, and 
for hundreds of other words. Nor have they 
shown us why, now that we have such words, we 
should not use them, rather than search in ancient 
mounds for roots from which we might possibly 
cultivate their equivalents. 

With a grateful appreciation of our language, 
we believe that on the grounds of harmony, of ex- 
pressiveness, of variety, of convenience, the bor- 
rowing of terms from classic tongues was wise ; 
and that English reduced to Saxon, if such a de- 
cline were possible, would not be a gain or a bless- 
ing, but an unspeakable calamity. Standing as 
the English language does to-day, with its wealth 
of derived words, its acquisition is made easier to 
millions of our fellow-men, and its usefulness to 
ourselves is thereby greatly increased. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Study of Words. — The Percentage of Anglo-Saxon, 
Latin, and Greek used by Mr. Choate and other Eminent 
Scholars. — The Methods of Sharon Turner and George P. 
Marsh. — Tables as to Derivatives. 

Me. Choate's solicitude as to the choice and 
use of words was very great. Professor Parsons 
says, " With all his variety and intensity of labor 
there was nothing he cultivated with more care 
than words." That he was not peculiar in this 
branch of study appears from familiar instances. 
Cicero had taught that the orator's style must 
be formed by the choice of words and the skill- 
ful arrangement of them in sentences. That in- 
struction has been repeated by great teachers 
from Quintilian clown. Dr. Johnson and Dean 
Swift refer to a perfect style as proper words 
in proper places. When Gibbon wrote, several 
times over, the first chapter of his history, and 
Brougham the close of his speech in the Queen's 
case, they were striving by choice words to im- 
prove the style. That Byron found it difficult 
to satisfy himself is shown by notes to an ap- 



THE STUDY OF WORDS. 97 

proved edition of his poems. Many changes were 
made. In one instance which I recall, he erased 
a word and substituted another ; then rejected 
the substitute and restored the original ; still in 
doubt, he wrote below, " Ask Gifford." Emer- 
son regarded Montaigne's choice with favor, as 
he says, " Cut these words and they would bleed ; 
they are vascular and alive." Of some of Mil- 
ton's lines, Macaulay says, " Change the structure 
of the sentence, substitute one synonym for an- 
other, and the whole effect is destroyed." Pitt 
thought verbal study important when he went 
twice through Bailey's Dictionary, carefully con- 
sidering every word. So also did Choate when 
he formed the habit of reading the dictionary by 
the page, and when he said to a student, " You 
want a diction whose every word is full freighted 
with suggestion and association, with beauty and 
power." 

To acquire such a diction was a work calling 
for intense and continuous application. But to 
master the words which Mr. Choate needed was a 
preparatory study. The question as to their best 
use remained, and appealed to a large and ripe 
experience. Writers and speakers differ in that 
use, as they differ in culture and taste, in percep- 
tion and judgment ; but they would agree that 
the grace, beauty, and power of the words used 



98 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

depend on the harmony of their relations to each 
other and to the thoughts expressed. 

Mr. Choate valued highly those synonyms which 
are useful in denoting 'distinctions, however slight, 
and in enabling a speaker to avoid a wearisome 
sameness of expression. His use of adjectives is a 
noticeable feature of his style. They were chosen 
with especial reference to the effect desired, and 
each furnishes a new outline. Used thus, adjec- 
tives are important for precision and definiteness. 
It is by them chiefly (and by their cognates, the 
adverbs) that qualification, so necessary to exact 
statement, can be attained. Mr. Choate once said 
to a friend of mine that the value of adjectives 
could be learned by studying botany. On taking 
up this study, one finds that the descriptive lan- 
guage in it is largely composed of adjectives ; and 
that to outline each tint, form, and garniture of 
leaf and flower is an admirable instance of what 
can be done by the use of such words. 

Mr. Choate was in full communion with the 
spirit of our language. He knew how strong, yet 
how flexible, the words are ; he knew their line- 
age and their history. He did not attempt to coin 
new words, or to reclaim those rejected because 
violating the analogies of the language, or to re- 
vive those that had become obsolete. Nor did he, 
when writing or speaking, pause or turn aside to 



THE USE OF WELL-ACCEPTED WORDS. 99 

find or to avoid Saxon words or words of foreign 
derivation. In a conservative spirit he accepted 
our language as nourished and developed to its 
present strength and maturity. Believing that 
its wealth is as precious in the realms of thought 
as coin and credit in the world of commerce, he 
sought to evolve and quicken its power to express 
with grace and precision every shade of sentiment 
and doctrine, however delicate or abstruse. 

No one who has considered the nature of lan- 
guage, or the poverty of which he is conscious 
when some of his emotions cannot be described, 
and yet believes that the development of lan- 
guage attends the growing refinement of the peo- 
ple, will doubt the wisdom that guided Mr. Choate 
in his studies, even when he was seeking a perfec- 
tion not yet attainable. Much has been said in 
vague and general terms as to the quality and 
extent of his vocabulary. Some not unfriendly 
critics have thought that he gave an undue pref- 
erence to words of foreign derivation ; and that 
his classic studies had perverted his taste and 
judgment in respect to our strong, homely, and 
simple native words. Such suggestions have had 
weight in confirming my wish to ascertain the rel- 
ative proportions of native and foreign words used 
by Mr. Choate and by some other distinguished 
scholars. 



100 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

In his history, Sharon Turner gave some atten- 
tion to such a question for the avowed purpose of 
proving " the copiousness and power of the Anglo- 
Saxon language ; " but his method, though sugges- 
tive, was partial and inadequate. He quoted a 
few lines from fourteen authors, and marked the 
Saxon words, — marked some of them many times. 
The particulars appear in the table at the end of 
this chapter. 

In his lectures on the English language, Mr. 
George P. Marsh gave the subject more attention, 
but his collections and estimates include repeated 
words. That distinguished philologist, Dr. Weisse, 
followed a different method. 

As the more weighty words, those upon which 
the sense of an author largely depends, are of 
classic derivation and not often repeated, and as 
some of the small words, the Saxon, do recur 
many times in every sentence, it is obvious that 
to include the repeated words in an estimate un- 
duly augments the percentage that should be as- 
signed to the Anglo-Saxon. The vocabulary of 
a speaker or writer cannot thus be determined. 
When told that Milton used 8,000 words and 
Shakespeare 15,000, one need not be told that in 
these estimates repeated words are not counted. 

In treating of Mr. Choate's vocabulary, I have 
caused all his words found in print, found by dili- 



MR. CHOATE' S VOCABULARY. 101 

gent search, to be written down, and classified ac- 
cording to their derivation, and the percentage of 
the whole which each class furnishes ascertained. 
But dates, proper names, and quotations have 
been omitted, and repeated words avoided; the 
question really being as to his total vocabulary, 
and not as to the frequency with which any class 
of words reappears in his writings. I find that 
Mr. Choate used 11,693 unrepeated words. Of 
these, 3,421 are Teutonic ; 7,223 are Latin ; 736 
are Greek ; 123 are common or Indo-European ; 
and 187 are scattering. The percentage of the 
whole number which the Teutonic furnishes is, 
therefore, .293 ; the Latin, .618 ; the Greek, .062 ; 
the Indo-European, .011 ; and the scattering, .016. 
A like test has been applied to twenty other au- 
thors, ten American and ten British ; — the unre- 
peated words used by each of them in one paper 
or more, on some subject or occasion of grave im- 
portance, have been classified and counted. That 
these authors differ from each other and from Mr. 
Choate in the percentage of Anglo-Saxon used 
may be ascribed in some measure to the varied 
nature of the subjects discussed by them, and to 
the number of words considered. The subject 
discussed in each instance, and the derivations of 
the words used, are given in the tables at the close 
of this chapter. These authors, I am persuaded, 



102 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

will be regarded as fit exponents of the English 
language at its best estate. It is evident that, if 
they could have expressed their views with equal 
freedom, fidelity, precision, and force in Anglo- 
Saxon and had done so, our independence of the 
classic elements in our language would be gen- 
erally confessed. 

My purpose, at first, was merely to learn the 
percentage of Anglo-Saxon used by these authors 
and by Mr. Choate. But, on further consideration, 
it seemed proper to extend the inquiry to words 
from other sources. In doing this, the words 
seemed naturally to fall into these five classes : — 

First. The Teutonic. By this I mean princi- 
pally, and almost exclusively, Anglo-Saxon. But, 
in all the writings examined, there is a slight 
sprinkling (1) of Norse, or Scandinavian, words ; 
(2) of old, middle, or modern High - German 
words ; and (3) of Dutch words. These, too few 
in number to justify separate classification, and 
not strictly Anglo-Saxon words, though near of 
kin to them, could properly be classed with such, 
under the generic heading Teutonic, and so have 
been. 

Secondly. The Latin ; including, of course, the 
words coming into the English through the 
French, the Italian, the Spanish, and the Portu- 
guese. 



CLASSES OF DERIVATIVES. 103 

Thirdly. The Greek. 

Fourthly. The Indo-European. This class em- 
braces words which belong to most or to all of the 
seven great members of our family of languages. 
Belonging to most or to all, they could not be 
classed with anv one of them. 

Fifthly. Scattering. Of the words of this class 
by far the larger part are purely Celtic. But oc- 
casionally there was found a Hebrew or an Arabic 
word, one distinctly Russian, or Persian, or Indian, 
or one from some other source, and a separate 
classification of these in the tables was not called 
for. 

It should be said, further, that what was evi- 
dently the most essential part of any compound 
determined the classification of the word-. Where 
there were prefixes or suffixes, or both, the root 
settled the class to which the word was assigned. 
Where the parts were still independent words, 
that part modified in meaning or limited in scope 
by the other part or the other parts was allowed 
to determine the class. 1 

In a letter from the late George P. Marsh, to be 
found in another part of this work, he says that 

1 The classification of the words, the determination of the per- 
centages, and the preparation of the tables are, with little of my 
help, the work of my learned friend, Brainerd Kellogg, Professor 
of English Language and Literature in the Collegiate and Poly- 
technic Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



104 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

he had thought Mr. Choate's vocabulary consisted 
of more words than I have given. As some of my 
readers may have a like impression, it is proper to 
speak of the rigorous excision practiced by the 
Professor, — an excision by which great numbers 
of words standing alphabetically in the columns 
prepared for him were cut out. No word in any 
one author, occurring as a single part of speech, 
was counted more than once, though used often 
by him in the same form, or in different forms. 
As, for instance, grow, grows, grew, growing, 
grown, found many times in the same author, 
were regarded as one word ; and taller or tallest 
was not counted if tall had been ; nor was the 
plural of any noun, if the singular had been. 

Let me, however, illustrate a seeming exception 
to this guiding rule stated and exemplified above. 
Is, was, and been are parts of one verb. But 
they are from different roots ; consequently, when 
found in an author, they were called three differ- 
ent words. For the same reason, better and worse, 
comparatives of the adjective good and the ad- 
verb badly, were counted, though the positives 
had been. So were the forms, thus differently de- 
rived, of all other parts of speech. 

The number of Mr. Choate's words as first col- 
lected, 15,559, was thus reduced to 11,693. 

With these explanations of the principles by 



COMPARATIVE PERCENTAGES. 105 

which the learned Professor was governed in 
the preparation of the tables, the lessons taught 
may be readily understood. 

As a summary of the less obvious teaching of 
the tables, Professor Kellogg has had the kindness, 
at my request, to write what follows. He says, 
" It will be seen by a glance at the tables, that 
eight of the twenty authors with whom Mr. 
Choate is compared use a smaller percentage of 
Teutonic words than he does; that two use the 
same ; that the ten who exceed his percentage of 
Teutonic exceed it about as much as the others 
drop below it ; and that these relations would not 
be essentially disturbed if the percentages marked 
common (Indo-European, or Aryan) were added to 
the Teutonic. It will be seen, also, that thirteen 
of these twenty authors use a larger percentage of 
Latin words than Mr. Choate does ; and that these 
thirteen exceed his percentage much more than 
the remaining seven fall below it. If, with some, 
we add the Greek words to the Latin, and call the 
resulting list classical, ten of the twenty would 
exceed Mr. Choate's percentage of classical words; 
one would have the same ; and the remaining 
nine would fall below his percentage much less 
than the ten would stand above it." 

Mr. Choate's vocabulary, the unrepeated words, 
is not in any material degree disturbed by the 



106 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

fact that many of his speeches and arguments 
were not published or preserved. He used in 
them, no doubt, words not found in the papers 
before me, but the number of unrepeated ad- 
ditional words would be much less than might 
be supposed, while the percentage of Anglo- 
Saxon, of Latin, and of Greek, would be substan- 
tially the same. 



SOME PARTICULARS OF SHARON TURNER'S WORKS. 



Authors. 


Number of 

\Vurds consid- 
ered. 


Of which are 
Anglo-Saxon. 


Of which (An- 
glo-Saxon) are 
Repetitions. 


Repetition of 

Words from 

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81 


68 


31 


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89 


71 


23 


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76 


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78 


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79 


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20 


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72 


58 


18 


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95 


75 


28 


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Pope 








84 


56 


17 


1 


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96 


73 


18 


1 


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87 


77 


26 


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114 


79 


33 


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101 


63 


35 


2 


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80 


47 


23 


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87 


60 


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333 


22 



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CHAPTER VII. 

Style, Variations of. — Long Sentences. — The Methodist 
Church Case. — Habits of Revising Speeches. — A Con- 
trast. — The Importance of Rhetorical Decorations. — The 
Freedom of Discourse necessary to an Advocate. — Long 
Arguments. 

The reader who believes, with Lord Karnes, 
that to have a specific style is to be poor of 
speech, will appreciate Mr. Choate's varied meth- 
ods. As a speaker he was copious, reiterative, 
and much given to illustrations useful in an ar- 
gument; as a writer he was more simple and 
severe. 

But, however widely his methods differed, the 
same delicate and touching sensibility, the same 
vivid and picturesque beauty, the same wealth of 
thought and power of expression appeared in what 
was spoken and in what was written. In neither 
was his brilliant imagery used as a mere embel- 
lishment ; the visions of beauty in his mind be- 
came articulate without effort; the musical flow 
and rhythm as inimitable as the melody of the 
murmuring brook. He evidently believed that 
from the harmony that could exist between a sub- 



LONG SENTENCES. 113 

ject and the tone of its discussion might arise a 
sense of ideal and emotional beauty, pleasing to 
the mind ; that a brilliant style was consistent with 
directness of thought and simplicity of speech ; 
and that rhetorical and illustrative imagery, em- 
ployed with taste and judgment, — pictures to the 
eye and to the mind, — might add to the spirit 
and force of an argument. 

Mr. Choate wrote with great freedom, and often 
spoke with vehemence and rapidity ; the words 
waiting instantly and submissively on the thoughts. 
When the subject moved him strongly and was to 
be compressed within the limits of a single dis- 
course, he sometimes rushed through one of those 
long sentences thought to be peculiar to him. 
However easy it may have been for him, — and 
it appeared to be easy, — the work in its nature 
was unique and difficult. To one not having a 
powerful memory, great command of language, 
and discrimination in the use of words, the achieve- 
ment would have been impossible. A long train 
of thought and the related parts of the discourse 
were to be held in mind, and the particulars so ad- 
justed as to be in harmony with each other and 
with the argument. Mr. Choate thus gave, in 
compact form, extended views of the matter in 
hand, without prolixity, confusion, or ambiguity. 
The longest sentence he is known to have used was 



114 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

in his eulogy of Webster. In that instance and in 
other instances of the kind, he was heard with 
such unbounded delight that no one would have 
thought of suggesting the common objection that 
long sentences tend to weary and perplex the 
hearer and the reader. In reading those sen- 
tences, as in reading the sovereign examples of 
Demosthenes, Cicero, and Milton, the student has 
a vivid conception of the argument. 

In a letter to Mr. Brazer, referring to a work 
on Logic, Mr. Webster accepts what is said of 
" argumentative repetition," and of " the effect 
of particularization," and says, " The skillful, and 
apparently natural, enumeration of particulars is 
certainly, in its proper place, one of the best 
modes of producing impressions. All the stand- 
ard works are full of instances of this sort of 
composition." In closing his letter, Mr. Webster 
adds, " ' After all,' says Cobbett, 'he is a man of 
talent that can make things move ; ' and after 
all, say I, he is an orator that can make me 
think as he thinks, and feel as he feels." 

Was not Mr. Choate such an orator ? From one 
of my correspondents I cite a few words relating 
to an occasion when Choate was speaking upon a 
familiar topic, " As Choate approached the climax, 
Webster's emotions became uncontrollable ; the 
great eyes were filled with tears, the great frame 



INFLUENCE OF THE PATHETIC. 115 

shook ; he bowed his head to conceal his face in 
his hat, and I almost seemed to hear him sob." 
Was not Mr. Choate's a style that could make 
Webster think as he thought, and feel as he felt ? 
When, in listening to any other orator, speaking 
in whatever style, was Webster so moved ? Those 
tears, that emotion, prove and illustrate his judg- 
ment, and blot out forever some of the loose and 
casual chat about Choate's style which Mr. Harvey 
reports in his " Reminiscences." If Webster ever 
did find fault with Choate's style, it would be in- 
teresting to know in what mood he was. If he 
talked of Choate's pile of flowers, and praised his 
logic rather than his style, Webster must have 
forgotten the care and patience with which he had 
cultivated his own flowers of speech, and the in- 
terest which they gave to some of his discourses. 
But he really differed from Choate, in the use of 
such forms of expression, less than may be com- 
monly supposed. In his popular addresses, Web- 
ster employed them more freely than when speak- 
ing to legislative bodies or in the courts. He used 
them, however, in each kind of service, when 
moved by passion, or when anxious to awaken or 
quicken the attention of his hearers. Yet, in re- 
vising his speeches for publication, he plucked 
away the flowers whose bloom and fragrance then 
pleased him less than when they had been adopted. 



116 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

But Mr. Choate's flowers of speech, of spontaneous 
growth and use, were left with his other words, in 
their original relations. 

In his essay, introductory to his selections from 
Mr. Webster's speeches, Mr. Whipple takes special 
and favorable notice of several figurative expres- 
sions which had been retained. They have great 
merit. I refer to one of them, illustrative some- 
what of the deliberation with which such embel- 
lishments were sought. Mr. Whipple gives the 
history. When Webster was once on the heights 
of Quebec, at an early hour of a summer morning, 
he heard the drum-beat calling the garrison to 
duty. It flashed upon him that England's morn- 
ing drum would go on beating elsewhere to the 
hour when it would again sound in Quebec. In 
his speech in the Senate, on the " Presidential Pro- 
test," after noticing the fact that our Revolution- 
ary fathers went to war in respect to mere taxa- 
tion, Webster said, " On this question of principle, 
while actual suffering was yet afar off, they raised 
their flag against a power, to which, for the pur- 
pose of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome, 
in the height of her glory, is not to be compared ; 
a power which has dotted over the surface of the 
whole globe with her possessions and military 
posts; whose morning drum-beat, following the 
sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles 



THE REVISION OF ARGUMENTS. 117 

the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain 
of the martial airs of England." 

As indicating the attention which that rhetor- 
ical illustration excited, Mr. Whipple notices the 
report that, at the conclusion of this speech, John 
Sergeant of Philadelphia came up to the orator, 
and eagerly asked, " Where, Webster, did you get 
that idea of the morning drum-beat ? ' : 
- Mr. Webster evidently believed that the idea of 
an unbroken circle of power, extending round the 
globe, originated with him and at Quebec. Mr. 
Whipple, however, refers to a passage in Goethe's 
" Faust" for the same idea, but says that Webster 
never read " Faust." He could also have referred 
to the " Odyssey," which Webster had read in the 
original and as translated, for a passage equally 
suggestive : — 

" Hear me, O Neptune ! thou whose arms are hurled 
From shore to shore and gird the solid world." 

The idea was old. Mr. Webster gave it a new 
form and office. 

In respect to the final improvement of their 
speeches, the difference between the habits of 
Webster and those of Choate is not less striking 
and significant. As a consequence, it may be said 
that he who would know these orators from their 
printed pages should remember that while one of 
them appears as in state-dress, every part care- 



118 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

fully arranged, the other appears in the unstudied 
dress of every-day life. 

An interesting statement, by the Hon. Enoch 
L. Fancher, as to Mr. Choate's relation to the 
Methodist Church case, appears in another part 
of this work. I am indebted to Judge Fancher 
for a copy of the report of that case which con- 
tains the arguments of counsel. I turn the pages 
of the book with conflicting emotions, — pleasure, 
in recalling what interested and impressed me 
many years ago ; sadness, in remembering what 
the country and the profession have since lost. 
On that trial, Judges Nelson and Betts presided, 
and Rufus Choate, Daniel Lord, George Wood, 
and Reverdy Johnson were of counsel, not one of 
whom is now living. 

The reader will learn, from Judge Fancher's 
paper, that he sought in vain to have Mr. Choate 
revise his argument for publication. The refusal 
was in keeping with Mr. Choate's habit. The 
work in hand having been performed, he turned 
to other labors or to his favorite studies, free from 
the ambition of appearing well in print. He al- 
ways sought to master his subject before under- 
taking its discussion. In this he was unsparing. 
But, in speaking, he could use appropriate terms, 
and be content to leave his words as they fell 
from his lips. It would, I think, be admitted by 



A CONTRAST. 119 

those who have often heard him and have studied 
him closely, that, owing to the character and ex- 
tent of his studies and the influence of his natural 
gifts, — memory, taste, judgment, — the words that 
would best express and illustrate his views were 
present to him as they were wanted, even when 
he was in the free and rapid current of discourse. 
Professor Parsons was sensible of this when he 
said that Choate "was never at a loss for the 
word." 

In contrast with such command of words and 
such indisposition to revise what had been said on 
a trial or in an argument, the reader will find in 
Mr. Whipple's essay, to which I have referred, a 
circumstantial account of the manner in which, by 
changing words, definitions, and illustrations, Mr. 
Webster " tormented reporters, proof-readers, and 
the printers who had the misfortune to be en- 
gaged in putting one of his performances into 
type, not because this or that word was or was 
not Saxon or Latin, but because it was inadequate 
to convey perfectly his meaning." 

Mr. Whipple mentions, also, Mr. Webster's re- 
vision of discourses which had been deliberately 
prepared. Thus he says, " On the morning after 
he had delivered his Eulogy on Adams and Jeffer- 
son, he entered his office with the manuscript in 
his hand, and threw it down on the desk of a 



120 MEMORIES OF EUFUS C HO ATE. 

young student at law, whom he greatly esteemed, 
with the request, ' There, Tom, please take that 
discourse and weed out all the Latin words.' " 

The publication, in pamphlet form, of Mr. Web- 
ster's Plymouth oration of 1820 was delayed for 
about a year. Mr. Whipple says, "It is probable 
that the Plymouth oration, as we possess it in 
print, is a better oration, in respect to composi- 
tion, than that which was heard by the applaud- 
ing crowd before which it was originally deliv- 
ered." 

Mr. Webster's taste was so exacting and severe 
that he was not easily satisfied with his own work. 
In that he was fortunate. He was fortunate also 
in his close communion with the great masters of 
speech. In the Eulogy, Mr. Choate refers to sev- 
eral writers from whom Mr. Webster had sought 
inspiration, and says, " To the study and compari- 
son, but not to the copying, of authors such as 
these ; to habits of writing and speaking and con- 
versing on the capital theory of always doing 
his best ; — thus, somewhat, I think, was acquired 
that remarkable production, c the last work of 
combined study and genius,' his rich, clear, cor- 
rect, harmonious, and weighty style of prose." 

Mr. Richard Grant White has like views upon 
such an acquisition. After suggesting that style 
cannot be taught, and that the student will derive 



CONVERSATION WITH MACKINTOSH. 121 

little benefit from mere rhetoric, he says, " It is 
general culture — above all, it is the constant sub- 
mission of a teachable, apprehensive mind to the 
influence of minds of the highest class, in daily 
life and in books, that bring out upon language 
its daintiest bloom and its richest fruitage." 

In using picturesque figures of speech and ar- 
gumentative illustrations, Mr. Webster and Mr. 
Choate were following the examples of great mas- 
ters of speech from Cicero down to their own 
times. But some critics, not able to conform to 
these standards, commend plainness of style, and 
object to rhetorical embellishments. Those who 
condemn what they cannot emulate deserve little 
attention. But it would seem that views occasion- 
ally ascribed to distinguished authors may have 
given such critics some encouragement. I make 
special mention of one instance. 

Sir James Mackintosh is reported to have said, 
in a conversation with Alexander H. Everett, 
" Eloquence is the power of gaining your purpose 
by words. All the labored definitions of it to be 
found in the different rhetorical works amount in 
substance to this. It does not, therefore, require 
or admit the strained and false ornaments that 
are taken for it by some. I hate those artificial 
flowers without fragrance or fitness. Nobody ever 
succeeded in this way but Burke. Fox used to 



122 MEMORIES OF RUFUS QUO ATE. 

say, 'I cannot bear this thing in anybody but 
Burke, and he cannot help it, it is his natural 
manner.' Mr. Wilberforce's voice is beautiful ; 
his manner mild and perfectly natural. He has 
no artificial ornament, but an easy, natural image 
occasionally springs up in the mind that pleases 
very much." 1 

In some respects, the contrast between Wilber- 
force and Burke was very great. Yet there is no 
reason to suppose that images sprang up in the 
mind of one of them more naturally than in the 
mind of the other. Mackintosh cites Fox with ap- 
probation, and could do so properly, as Fox knew 
Burke by heart. But when Fox, speaking of the 
abundant and gorgeous imagery of Burke, says 
that he could not help it, it was his natural man- 
ner, he recognizes Burke's genius, and, in effect, 
denies that he employed strained and false orna- 
ments or artificial flowers. 

In his definition of eloquence, Mackintosh could 
have said that the speaker who seeks to gain his 
purpose by words must be true to his nature, and 
that to check or to stimulate his powers by limit- 
ing himself to the use of a plain style, or by striv- 
ing after ornamentation, would betray great weak- 
ness. How far he would have tolerated Choate's 
and Webster's flowers of speech it would be haz- 

1 North America?! Review, 1832. 



RULE FOR THE FORENSIC SPEAKER. 123 

ardous to surmise. But he could not think it 
more feasible or just to apply a law of repression 
to the luxurious diction of a man of genius than it 
would be to add " lead and ballast to the under- 
standing " to bring it down to the level of common 
minds. Either course would be as reasonable as 
to clip the wings of eagles, formed by nature to 
cleave the upper air. It is obvious that he who 
would by words secure the assent of others must 
be allowed to speak as the spirit moves him, with 
no other sense of restraint than his culture, taste, 
and judgment, the character of his hearers, and 
the nature of his subject may impose. Such free- 
dom is most essential to the advocate. 

It has been suggested as the rule for the foren- 
sic speaker that he should pass over inferior mat- 
ters, and concentrate his efforts upon the more 
material points in a case ; whereas, it was charac- 
teristic of Mr. Choate that he did, in some sense, 
just the opposite. It is to be remembered, how- 
ever, that with great freedom of suggestion, of 
illustration, of argument, his discourse was tem- 
pered by a keen and steady watchfulness of the 
effect he was producing. He peered, as it were, 
into the very souls of the jury to read the stage 
of conviction to which they had been brought. 
He knew that the less important points of a case 
may give the jury trouble, may even prevent 



124 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

their agreeing upon a verdict. Then, too, mat- 
ters which, as first considered, appear to be of 
little moment, may in combination, or in their re- 
lation to unexpected developments on a trial, be- 
come important. It would, indeed, be interesting 
to know by what prevision, in cases like those of 
Tirrell, where a life was at stake, and of Dalton, 
where a woman's honor was in peril, counsel could 
sift out what might be passed over in silence as 
immaterial. 

It has been suggested, also, that Mr. Choate's 
arguments before juries were long, with the im- 
plication that they were too long. The objection 
might be reasonable if it had been observed that 
in any case he did not keep the attention of the 
jury to the end of the discussion. We can recall 
no instance of such failure. He often tried ques- 
tions of fact with the brevity for which Sir James 
Scarlett and Judg;e Curtis have been commended. 
But in desperate cases, the testimony conflicting 
and doubtful, such economy of time and strength 
would not have been proper. In his Recollections 
of Mr. Choate, from which I have permission to 
quote, Mr. Whipple says, " On one occasion I hap- 
pened to be a witness in a case where a trader 
was prosecuted for obtaining goods under false 
pretenses. Mr. Choate took the ground that the 
seeming knavery of the accused was due to the 



ARGUMENT IN A TRYING CASE. 125 

circumstance that he had a deficient business in- 
telligence — in short, that he unconsciously rated 
all his geese as swans. He (Choate) was right in 
his view. The foreman of the jury, however, was 
a hard-headed, practical man, a model of business 
intellect and integrity, but with an incapacity of 
understanding any intellect or conscience radically 
differing from his own. Mr. Choate's argument, 
as far as the facts and the law were concerned, 
was through in an hour. Still he went on speak- 
ing. Hour after hour passed, and yet he con- 
tinued to speak with constantly increasing elo- 
quence, repeating and recapitulating, without any 
seeming reason, facts which he had already stated 
and arguments which he had already urged. The 
truth was, as I gradually learned, that he was en- 
gaged in a hand-to-hand — or rather in a brain- 
to-brain and a heart-to-heart — contest with the 
foreman, whose resistance he was determined to 
break down, but who confronted him for three 
hours with defiance observable in every rigid line 
of his honest countenance. ' You fool ! ' was the 
burden of the advocate's ingenious argument ; 
' you rascal ! ' was the phrase legibly printed on 
the foreman's incredulous face. But at last the 
features of the foreman began to relax, and at the 
end the stern lines melted into acquiescence with 
the opinion of the advocate, who had been storm- 



126 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

ing at the defenses of his mind, his heart, and his 
conscience for five hours, and had now entered as 
victor. He compelled the foreman to admit the 
unpleasant fact that there were existing human 
beings whose mental and moral constitution dif- 
fered from his own, and who were yet as honest 
in intention as he was, but lacked his clear per- 
ception and sound judgment. The verdict was, 
'Not guilty.' It was a just verdict, but it was 
mercilessly assailed by merchants who had lost 
money by the prisoner and who were hounding 
him down as an enemy to the human race, as an- 
other instance of Choate's lack of mental and 
moral honesty in the defense of persons accused 
of crime. The'fact that the foreman of the jury 
that returned the verdict belonged to the class 
that most vehemently attacked Choate was suf- 
ficient of itself to disprove such allegations. As I 
listened to Choate's argument in this case, I felt 
assured that he would go on speaking until he 
dropped dead on the floor rather than have relin- 
quished his clutch on the soul of the one man on 
the jury who he knew would control the opinion 

of the others." 

I may be allowed to say that the stubborn juror 
could not have been persuaded to adopt Mr. 
Choate's views by the mere repetition of facts and 
arguments, or by a determination to break him 



LONG ARGUMENTS. 127 

down. His peculiarities were to be consulted, 
and his self-respect encouraged by making him 
feel that he represented the higher intelligence of 
the jury. To his sense and apprehension there 
were or should have been no bald and verbal 
repetitions; these would have offended his pride 
and been fruitless; would have involved a tau- 
tology which Mr. Choate abhorred. In the course 
of that discussion, no doubt varied relations were 
recalled, recognized difficulties qualified, points 
which had been stated put in new lights, and a 
sense of novelty and interest excited. On the last 
occasion when I heard Mr. Choate, he dealt with 
the jury after that fashion. I was reminded of 
what Stanhope says of Fox's repetitions — that 
one argument stated in five different forms may 
be equal to five different arguments. 

The critic who thinks that Mr. Choate's argu- 
ments were long would do well to recall the suc- 
cess that often crowned his efforts ; also that one 
of Erskine's speeches occupied seven hours ; that, 
with us, counsel, sensible of the value of time, 
have been known to speak to the purpose in a 
case and entertain a jury for a week ; and that in 
the Star Route trial the arguments of two of the 
counsel consumed, each, seven days. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Rev. Dr. Hitchcock's View of Mr. Choate. — Extracts from 
Journal. — The Comparative Advantages of living in the 
Old World. — Music. — Vindication of Sir Walter Scott. — 
Intervention. — Kossuth's Visit. — Eulogy of Webster. 

Mr. Choate's study of the great masters of 
speech in several languages left him in the use 
of a style that was best suited to his taste and 
genius. Hence it is that a wholesome relation 
appears between the sympathetic power of his 
early and of his later speeches. Such was the 
opinion of Chief Justice Perley, who entered col- 
lege when young Choate was there, and knew him 
up to the close of his life. In speaking of his 
early studies, the Chief Justice says, "He was 
already remarkable for the same brilliant qualities 
which distinguished him in his subsequent career. 
To those who knew him then, and watched his 
onward course, little change was observable in his 
style of writing or in his manner of speaking, 
except such as would naturally be required by 
subjects of a wider range, and by more exacting 



occasions." 



REV. DR. HITCHCOCK ON CHOATE. 129 

I am indebted to the Rev. Roswell D. Hitch- 
cock, D. D., President of the Union Theological 
Seminary, New York, for the following : " Between 
the years 1845 and 1852, when I was living in 
Exeter, N. H., and was often in Boston, I used 
to see Mr. Choate in Burnham's antiquarian book- 
store, on Cornhill. I had no speaking acquaint- 
ance with him, but more than once he gave a sort 
of gracious half-recognition, which seemed to me 
the very perfection of courtesy and kindliness. As 
he moved about among the old books, finding now 
and then something that pleased him, there was 
no mistaking the rare quality of the man. That 
fine face, so deeply furrowed, the keen, but genial, 
glance of the eye, the whole air so self-respecting 
and yet so sweetly deferential to others, always 
thrilled me at the time, and haunted my memory 
long afterwards." 

Of Mr. Choate's style and its effect, Dr. Hitch- 
cock says, " Certainly he seldom failed to carry 
his point with any jury, or any popular assembly. 
He caught men up and swept them along, as the 
wind sweeps leaves and dust. Whoever seeks to 
know the secret of this will find it preeminently 
in the innermost, essential character of the man. 
He was pure, and just, and true, and tender, so 
that whatever he said commended, and still com- 
mends, itself to what is best and highest in our 

9 



130 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

common nature. He was not only thoroughly 
good, but his goodness was fine and chivalric. 
The fascination was moral. The heart was cap- 
tured first, and after that the imagination. His 
marvelous fertility of invention, wealth of allu- 
sion, and swift succession of illimitable felicities 
of thought and diction never seemed like devices 
to blind and betray the judgment, but came as 
naturally as the bloom of fruit-trees, or tjie foam 
of crested waves. His voice was one of a thou- 
sand, of ten thousand rather, now like .a flute for 
softness, and now like a clarion." 

Mr. Choate could say what he would, in what- 
ever style he would, with ease and certainty. He 
writes and speaks as one thoughtless of mere 
style, and there seems to be almost no limit to 
the variety of tone and expression. 

I give some extracts, mere fragments, from his 
Journal, 1 showing briefly some of his impressions 
in 1850, when he was traveling abroad. 

"Monday, August 5, Lucerne. This, then, is 
Switzerland. It is a sweet, burning midsummer's 
morning at Lucerne. Under one of my windows 
is a little garden in which I see currants, cabbages, 
pear-trees, vines, healthfully growing. Before 
me, from the other, I see the lake of Lucerne, — 
beyond it, in farthest east, I see the snowy peaks 

1 Brown's Memoirs, vol. i. 



FRAGMENTS OF THE JOURNAL. 131 

of Alps. I count some dozen distinct summits on 
which the snow is lying, composing a range of 
many miles. On my extreme right ascends Mount 
Pilate, — splintered, bare granite, — and, on the 
other, Righi, high and bold, yet wooded nearly to 
the top. It is a scene of great beauty and inter- 
est, where all ' save the spirit of man ' may seem 
divine. We left Basle at nine on Saturday morn- 
ing, and got to Zurich that evening at six. This 
ride opened no remarkable beauty or grandeur, 
yet possessed great interest. It was performed 
in a diligence, — the old, continental stage-coach. 
And the impression made through the whole day, 
or until we approached Zurich, was exactly that 
of a ride in the coach from Hanover to the White 
Hills. I ascribe this to the obvious circumstances 
that we were already far above the sea, were 
ascending along the bank of a river, the Rhine, 
and then a branch which met us, rushing full and 
fast from its mountain sources — that we were ap- 
proaching the base of mountains of the first class 
in a high northern latitude. The agricultural 
productions (except the exotic vine), the grass, 
weeds moderate ; wheat — clover — whiteweed — 
the construction of the valley — the occasional 
bends and intervals — all seem that of New Eng- 
land. There was less beauty than at Newbury 
and Bath, and, I think, not a richer soil, — cer- 



132 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

tainly a poorer people. They assiduously accu- 
mulate manure, and women of all ages were reap- 
ing in the fields. 

" Zurich is beautiful. The lake extends beau- 
tifully to the south before it. Pleasant gardens 
and orchards and heights lie down to it and ad- 
joining it. And here first we saw the Alps — a 
vast chain. The glaciers, ranging from east to 
west, closing the view to the south — their peaks, 
covered with snow, lay along as battlements, un- 
supported beneath, of a city of the sky out of 
sight. 

"All things in Zurich announce Protestantism, 
— activity of mind, the university, the books, the 
learned men, the new buildings, the prosperity. 

" I shall never forget the sweet sensations with 
which I rode the first five or ten miles from Zurich 
yesterday. It was Sunday. The bells of Zurich 
were ringing, — including that honored by the 
preaching of Zwingle, — and men, women, and 
children were dressed, and with books were going 
to meeting. Our way lay for some time along 
the shores of the lake, through gardens, orchards, 
and fields, to the water's edge, many of them of 
the highest beauty. Then it left the lake to 
ascend the Albis. This is an excellent road, but, 
to overcome the mountain, its course is zigzag, and 
is practicable only for a walk of the horses. I got 



Z URICH — L UCERNE. 133 

out, and ascended on foot, crossing from one ter- 
race of road to another, by paths through pleasant 
woods. As I ascended, the whole valley of Zurich, 
— the city, the lake, in its whole length, the 
amphitheatre of country inclosing it, the glorious 
Alps, and, at last, Righi and Pilate, standing like 
the speaker's place in a lyceum, with an audience 
of mountains vastly higher, rising into the peculiar 
pinnacle of the Alps, covered with snow, ascend- 
ing before them, — successively evolved itself. I 
saw over half of Switzerland. Spread on it all 
was the sweet, not oppressive, unclouded, sum- 
mer's sunlight. A pure, clear air enfolded it, — 
the Sunday of the pastoral, sheltered, and happy 
world. In some such scenes the foundations of 
the Puritan mind and polity were laid, — scenes, 
beautiful by the side of Tempe and Arcady, — fit 
as they to nurse and shelter all the kinds of 
liberty. 

" We descended to Zug and its lake, and then 
coasted it to Lucerne. Last evening; we visited 
the emblematical lion and sailed on the lake. 
To-day I go to the chapel of Tell. The first view 
of the peculiar sharp points of Alps was just from 
the very top of Albis, on the southwest brow. 
There rose Righi and Pilate, and east — apart 
and above — a sort of range, or city, of the tents 
of an encampment in the sky. They rested on 



134 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

nothing, and seemed architecture of heaven — pa- 
vilions — the tents of a cavalcade traveling above 
the earth. 

" Berne, Wednesday, 7th. We left Lucerne at 
seven, in our own hired voiture, and with one 
change of horses, treating ourselves to two long 
pauses, arrived here at eight o'clock — the last 
two hours through a thunder-shower. The way 
gave me much of the common and average life of 
Switzerland, lying through two of its great can- 
tons. What I saw of Lucerne disappointed me. 
The soil, I should think, cold and ungrateful, and 
the mind of the laborer not open. Crucifixes 
everywhere, and all over everything, — weeds in 
corn and grass. Once in Berne all changes. Man 
does his duty. Excellent stone bridges; good 
fences ; fewer weeds ; more wheat and grass ; 
more look of labor; better buildings; better, 
newer, larger houses and barns ; no crucifixes ; 
express the change. Throughout I find a small- 
ish, homely race, and pursue the dream of Swiss 
life in vain. Yet in these valleys, on the sides of 
these hills, in these farm-houses, scattered far and 
near, though all is cut off from the great arterial 
and venous system of the world of trade and in- 
fluence, — though the great pulse of business and 
politics beats not — though life might seem to 
stagnate, — is happiness and goodness too. Some- 



BERNE. 135 

times a high Swiss mind emerges, and, speaking 
•a foreign or dead tongue, or migrating, asserts 
itself. Berne is full of liveliness and recency, as 
well as eld. I have run over it before breakfast, 
and shall again before we go. 

" I saw at Berne the place of the state bears, 
and two of the pensioners, the high terraced 
ground of view, the residence of the patricians, 
and the Cathedral, containing, among other things, 
tablets to the memory of those who fell in 1798, 
enumerating them ; and the painted windows of 
Protestant satire. Our journey to Vevay had 
little interest, a grim horizon of cloud and a con- 
stant fall of rain wholly obscured the Alps. Frei- 
burg is striking, its suspended bridge sublime, and 
it holds one of the best organs of the world. We 
arrived here (Vevay) at ten, and I have this morn- 
ing looked out on the whole beauty of this part 
of the lake, — from Hauteville, and from a point 
on the shore above it, and towards the direction 
of Chillon, — and admitted its supreme interest, 
and its various physical and associated beauty. 
The day is clear and warm and still. The slight- 
est breeze stirs the surface of the lake ; light 
clouds curl half-way up the steep shores, float, 
vanish, and are succeeded by others ; a summer's 
sun bathes a long shore and inland rising from the 
shore, clad thick with vines ; yonder, looking to 



136 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

the southeast upon the water, in that valley, 
sheltered by the mountain, nestling among those 
trees, embraced and held still in the arms of uni- 
versal love, is Clarens, — fit, unpolluted asylum 
of love and philosophy ; before it, on its left, is 
the castle of Chillon, more directly before it the 
mouth of the Rhone, here resting a space in his 
long flight from his glacier-source ; far-off, west, 
stretched the Lake of Geneva, at peace, here and 
there a white sail, — the home, the worship, the 
inspiration of Rousseau and De Stael ; the shelter 
of liberty ; the cradle of free-thinking ; the scene 
in which the character and fortune of Puritanism 
were shaped and made possible ; the true birth- 
place of the civil and religious order of the north- 
ern New World. 

" Geneva, 9th August, Friday. The lake was 
smooth and bright, and our voyage of five hours 
pleasant and prosperous ; and we had the extraor- 
dinary fortune to witness what we are assured was 
the best sunset on Mont Blanc for years. Long 
after the sun had sunk below our earth, the whole 
range of the mountain was in a blaze with the 
descending glory. At first it was a mere reflec- 
tion, from a long and high surface, of the sun's 
rays. Gradually this passed into a golden and 
rosy hue, then all darkened except the supreme 
summit itself, from which the gold light flashed, 



MONT BLANC. 137 

beamed, some time longer ; one bright turret of 
the building not made with hands, kindled from 
within, self -poised, or held by an unseen hand. 
Under our feet ran the Rhone, leaping, joyful, 
full, blue, to his bed in the Mediterranean. Be- 
fore us is the city of thought, liberty, power, in- 
fluence, the beautiful and famous Geneva. More 
than all in interest was the house of the father of 
Madame de Stael, and the home of the studies of 
Gibbon. 

" I went on Saturday, August 10, to the nearer 
contemplation of Mont Blanc, at Chamouny. Most 
of that journey lies through Savoy, of the kingdom 
of Sardinia, even as far as St. Martin, and beyond 
somewhat, a well-constructed royal road. Within 
the first third, I should think, of the clay's ride 
out from Geneva, and long before Mont Blanc 
again reveals himself (for you lose sight of him 
wholly in a mile or two out of the city), you enter 
a country of much such scenery as the Notch of 
the White Mountains. An excellent road ascends 
by the side of the Arve, itself a mad, eager stream, 
leaping from the mer de glace, and running head- 
long, of the color of milk mixed with clay, to the 
Rhone, below Geneva, on each side of which rise, 
one after another, a succession of vast heights, 
some a half mile to a mile above you, all steep, 
more than even perpendicular, and even hanging 



138 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

over you, as projecting beyond their base. These 
are so near, and our view so unobstructed, and 
they are all of a height so comprehensible and 
appreciable, so to speak, so little is lost by an un- 
availing elevation, that they make more impres- 
sion than a mountain five times as high. It is 
exactly as in the Notch, where the grandeur, in- 
stead of being enthroned remote, dim, and resting 
in measurement, and demanding comparisons and 
thoughts, is near, palpable, and exacting. Down 
many of these streamed rivulets of water, sil- 
ver threads of hundreds, perhaps of thousands, 
of feet long from source to base of cliff, often 
totally floating off from the side of the hill, and 
the bed in which they had begun to run, in a 
mere mist, which fell like rain, and farther down, 
and to the right or left of the original flow, were 
condensed again into mere streams. These have 
no character of waterfall as you ride along, but 
discharge a great deal of water in a very pictur- 
esque, holiday, and wanton fashion. This kind 
of scenery grows bolder and wilder, and at last, 
and suddenly, at St. Martin, we saw again, above 
it, and beyond it all, the range of Mont Blanc, 
covered with snow, and at first, its summit covered 
too with clouds. Thenceforth this was ever in 
view, and some hours before sunset the clouds 
lifted themselves and vanished, and we looked till 



COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 139 

all was dark upon the unveiled summit itself. 
Ao-ain we had a beautiful evening sky; again, 

o 

but this time directly at the foot of the mountain, 
we stood and watched the surviving, diminishing 
glory, and just as that faded from the loftiest 
peak, and it was night, I turned and saw the new 
moon opposite, within an hour of setting in the 
west. From all this glory, and at this elevation, 
my heart turned homeward, and I only wished 
that since dear friends could not share this here, 
I could be by their side, and Mont Blanc a morn- 
ing's imagination only." 

His impressions as to the contrast between the 
advantages of living in the Old and in the New 
World are of special interest. 

"The higher charm of Europe is attributable 
only to her bearing on her bosom here and there 
some memorials of a civilization about seven or 
eight hundred years old. Of any visible traces 
of anything earlier there is nothing. All earlier 
is of the ancient life, is in books, and may be ap- 
propriated by us, as well as by her, under God, 
and by proper helps. The gathering of that eight 
hundred years, however, collected and held here, 
libraries, art, famous places, educational spec- 
tacles of architecture, picture, statue, gardening, 
fountains, — are rich, rich, and some of them we 
can never have nor use. 



140 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

" On how many European minds, in a genera- 
tion, is felt educationally the influence of that 
large body of spectacles specifically European, and 
which can never be transferred ? Recollect, first, 
that all her books we can have among us perma- 
nently. All her history we can read and know, 
therefore, and all things printed. What remains ? 
What that can never be transferred ? Picture, 
statue, building, grounds; beyond and above, a 
spirit of the place; whatsoever and all which 
comes from living in and visiting memorable 
places. How many in Europe are influenced, and 
how, by this last ? The recorded history affects 
us as it does them. In which hemisphere would 
an imaginative and speculative mind most enjoy 
itself ? In America, land of hope ! liberty, — 
Utopia sobered, realized, to be fitted according to 
an idea, with occasional visits to this picture- 
gallery and museum, occasional studies here of 
the objects we can't have ; or here, under an in- 
flexible realization, inequalities of condition, rank, 
force, property, tribute to the Past, — the Past ! ! ! 
" Looking to classes : 1st. The vast mass is 
happier and better in America, is worth more, 
rises higher, is freer ; its standard of culture and 
life higher. 2. Property-holders are as scarce. 3. 
The class of wealth, taste, social refinement, and 
genius, — how with them ? 



OUR ADVANTAGES THE GREATEST. 141 

" Mem. The enjoyment of an American of re- 
fined tastes and a spirit of love of man is as high 
as that of a European of the same class. He has 
all but what visits will give him, and he has what 
no visits can give the other. 

" What one human being, not of a privileged 
class, is better off in Europe than he would be 
in America ? Possibly a mere scholar, or student 
of art, seeking learning or taste for itself, to ac- 
complish himself. But the question is, if in any 
case, high and low, the same rate of mind, and 
the same kind of mind, may not be as happy in 
America as in Europe. It must modify its aims 
and sources somewhat, live out of itself, seek to 
do good, educate others. It may acquire less, 
teach more; suck into its veins less nutriment, 
less essence, less perception of beauty, less relish 
of it (this I doubt), but diffuse it more. 

" What is it worth to live among all that I have 
seen ? I think access to the books and works of 
art is all. There is no natural beauty thus far 
beyond ours, — and a storied country, storied of 
battles and blood, — is that an educational influ- 
ence : 

Those who have thought that Mr. Choate had 
little taste for music may wish that they had 
stood by him in the Cathedral of Strasburg, 
"where mass was performing, and a glorious 



142 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

organ was filling that unbounded interior with 
the grandest and the sweetest of music, through 
whose pauses you heard the muttered voice of 
the priest, and the chanting of a choir wholly out 
of sight." Or, at St. Denis, where " The organ 
was played just enough to show what oceans and 
firmaments full of harmony are there accumu- 
lated. Some drops, some rivulets, some grandest 
peals we heard, identifying it, and creating long- 
ings for more." 

Mr. Choate had a fervent admiration for Sir 
Walter Scott. In his lecture on our " Obliga- 
tions to the British Poets," delivered in 1856, 
he defends Scott and his novels against one of 
the detractors. The following will illustrate the 
moderate tone which was peculiar to Mr. Choate 
when indulging in controversy. He says, " It has 
pleased Mr. Thomas Carlyle to record of these 
novels, — 'The sick heart will find no healing 
here, the darkly struggling heart no guidance, 
the heroic that is in all men no divine, awakening 
voice.' These be sonorous words assuredly. In 
one sense I am afraid that is true of any and all 
mere romantic literature. As disparagement of 
Scott, it is a simple absurdity of injustice. In any 
adequate sense of these expressions, Homer and 
Shakespeare must answer, ' These are not mine 
to give.' To heal that sickness, to pour that light 



GENTLE TONE IN CONTROVERSY. 143 

on that gloom, to awaken that sleep of greatness 
in the soul in the highest sense, far other pro- 
vision is demanded, and is given. In the old, old 
time, — Hebrew, Pagan, — some found it in the 
very voice of God ; some in the visits of the 
angel; some in a pilgrimage to the beautiful 
Jerusalem; some in the message of the prophet, 
till that succession had its close ; some sought it 
rather than found it, like Socrates, like Plato, like 
Cicero, like Cato, in the thoughts of their own 
and other mighty minds turned to the direct 
search of truth, in the philosophy of speculation, 
in the philosophy of duty, in the practice of public 
life. To us only, and at last, is given the true 
light. For us only is the great Physician pro- 
vided. In our ears, in theirs whose testimony we 
assuredly believe, the divine, awakening voice has 
been articulately and first spoken. In this sense, 
what he says would be true of Homer, Shake- 
speare, Dante, Milton, but no more true of Scott 
than of Goethe or Schiller. Neither is, or gives, 
religion to the soul, if it is that of which he 
speaks. But if this is not his meaning, — and I 
suppose it is not, if he means to say that by the 
same general treatment, by the same form of suf- 
fering humanity by which Homer, Virgil, Dante, 
Shakespeare heal the sick heart, give light to the 
darkened eye, and guidance to blundering feet, 



144 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

and kindle the heroic in man to life, — if he 
means to say that as they have done it he has 
not in kind, in supreme degree, — let the millions 
whose hours of unrest, anguish, and fear he has 
charmed away, to the darkness of whose despond- 
ing he has given light, to whose sentiments of 
honor, duty, courage, truth, manliness, he has 
given help, — let them gather around the capitol 
and answer for themselves and him. I am afraid 
that that Delphic and glorious Madame de Stael 
knew sickness of the heart in a sense and with a 
depth too true only ; and she had, with other con- 
solation, the fisherman's funeral, in the i Anti- 
quary,' read to her on her death-bed ; as Charles 
Fox had the kindred but unequal sketches of 
Crabbe's ' Village ' read on his. 

" And so of this complaint, that the heroic in 
man finds here no divine, awakening voice. If 
by this heroic in man he means what — assuming 
religious traits out of the question — we who 
speak the tongue of England and hold the ethics 
of Plato, of Cicero, of Jeremy Taylor, and Ed- 
mund Burke should understand, — religion now 
out of the question — that sense of obligation, 
pursuing us ever, omnipresent like the Deity, ever 
proclaiming that the duties of life are, more than 
life, — that principle of honor that feels a stain 
like a wound, — that courage that fears God and 



APPEALS TO HEROIC SPIRITS. 145 

knows no other fear, that dares do all that may 
become a man, — truth on the lips and in the 
inward parts, — that love of our own native 
land, comprehensive and full love, the absence of 
which makes even the superb art-world of Goethe 
dreamy and epicurean, — manliness, equal to all 
offices of war or peace, above jealousy, above in- 
justice—if this is the heroic, and if by the divine 
awakening voice he meant that * artistic and lit- 
erary culture fitted to develop and train this 
quality, that voice is Scott's. 

" I will not compare him with Carlyle's Goethe 
or even Schiller, or any other idol on the Olym- 
pus of his worship ; that were flippant and indec- 
orous, nor within my competence. But who and 
where, in any literature, in any walk of genius, 
has sketched a character, imagined a situation, 
conceived an austerity of glorified suffering, bet- 
ter adapted to awaken all of the heroic in man 
or woman that it is fit to awaken, than Rebecca 
in act to leap from the dizzy verge of the parapet 
of the castle to escape the Templar, or awaiting 
the bitterness of death in the list of Templestowe 
and rejecting the championship of her admirer ? — 
or than Jeanie Deans refusing an untruth to save 
her innocent sister's life and then walking to Lon- 
don to plead for her before the Queen, — and so 
pleading ? — than Macbriar in that group of Cov- 

10 



146 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CEO ATE. 

enanters in " Old Mortality " in presence of the 
Privy Council confessing for himself, whom terror, 
whom torture could not move to the betrayal of an- 
other ; accepting sentence of death, after anguish 
unimaginable, his face radiant with joy ; a trial of 
manhood and trust, a sublimity of trial, a mani- 
festation of the heroic to which the self-sacrifice 
of a Leonidas and his three hundred was but a 
wild and glad revelry, — a march to the ' Dorian 
music of flutes and soft recorders,' — a crowning, 
after the holiday contention of the games, with 
all of glory a Greek could covet or conceive ? " 

In an address on the " Intervention of the New 
World in the Affairs of the Old," delivered in 
1852, Mr. Choate thus speaks of Kossuth. I cite 
this passage as illustrative of his style; also be- 
cause Kossuth's visit to us is of interest as matter 
of history, and is nowhere else so fitly given. 

" On the fifth day of the last December, there 
came to this land a man of alien blood, of foreign 
and unfamiliar habit, costume, and accent; yet 
the most eloquent of speech according to his 
mode, — the most eloquent by his history and 
circumstances, — the most eloquent by his mission 
and topics, whom the world has, for many ages, 
seen; and began, among us a brief sojourn, — 
began, say rather, a brief and strange, eventful 
pilgrimage, which is just now concluded. Imper- 



KOSSUTH'S VISIT. 147 

feet in his mastery of our tongue, — he took his 
first lessons in the little room over the barrack- 
gate of Buda, a few months before, — his only 
practice in it had been a few speeches to quite 
uncritical audiences in Southampton, in Birming- 
ham, Manchester, and Guildhall ; bred in a school 
of taste and general culture with which our An- 
glo-Saxon training has little affinity and little 
sympathy ; the representative and impersonation, 
though not, I believe, the native child, of a race 
from the East, planted some centuries ago in Eu- 
rope, but Oriental still as ever, in all but its Chris- 
tianity ; the pleader of a cause in which we might 
seem to be as little concerned as in the story of 
the lone Pelops or that of Troy divine, coming 
before us even such — that silver voice, that sad, 
abstracted eye, before which one image seemed 
alone to hover, one procession to be passing, the 
fallen Hungary — the ' unnamed demigods,' her 
thousands of devoted sons ; that earnest and full 
soul, laboring with one emotion, has held thou- 
sands and thousands of all degrees of suscepti- 
bility ; the coldness and self-control of the East, 
the more spontaneous sympathies of the West, 
the masses in numbers without number, women, 
scholars, our greatest names in civil places, by the 
seashore, in banquet halls, in halls of legislation, 
among the memories of Bunker Hill, — every- 



148 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

where he has held all, with a charm as absolute 
as that with which the Ancient Mariner kept back 
the bridal guest after the music of the marriage 
feast had begun. 

" The tribute of tears and applaudings ; the 
tribute of sympathy and of thoughts too deep for 
applaudings, too deep for tears, have attested his 
sway. For the first time since the transcendent 
genius of Demosthenes strove with the downward 
age of Greece ; or since the prophets of Israel an- 
nounced — each tone of the hymn grander, sad- 
der, than before — the successive footfalls of the 
approaching Assyrian beneath whose spear the 
Law should cease and the vision be seen no more ; 
our ears, our hearts, have drunk the sweetest, 
most mournful, most awful of the words which 
man may ever utter, or may ever hear — the elo- 
quence of an expiring nation. 

" For of all this tide of speech, flowing without 
ebb, there was one source only. To one note only 
was the harp of this enchantment strung. It was 
an appeal not to the interests, not to the reason, 
not to the prudence, not to the justice, not to the 
instructed conscience of America and England ; 
but to the mere emotion of sympathy for a single 
family of man oppressed by another — contending 
to be free, cloven down on the field, yet again 
erect ; her body dead, her spirit incapable to die ; 



THE SYMPATHY KOSSUTH AWAKENED. 149 

the victim of treachery ; the victim of power ; the 
victim of intervention ; yet breathing, singing, 
lingering, dying, hoping, through all the pain, the 
bliss of an agony of glory ! For this perishing 
nation — not one inhabitant of which we ever 
saw ; on whose territory we had never set a foot ; 
whose books we had never read ; to whose ports 
we never traded ; not belonging in an exact sense 
to the circle of independent states; a province, 
rather, of an empire which alone is known to 
international law and to our own diplomacy ; for 
this nation he sought pity, the intervention, the 
armed intervention, the material aid of pity ; and 
if his audiences could have had their will, he 
would have obtained it, without mixture or meas- 
ure, to his heart's content. 

" When shall we be quite certain again that the 
lyre of Orpheus did not kindle the savage na- 
ture to a transient discourse of reason, — did not 
suspend the labors and charm the pains of the 
damned, — did not lay the keeper of the grave 
asleep, and win back Eurydice from the world 
beyond the river, to the warm upper air ? 

"And now that this pilgrimage of romance is 
ended, the harp hushed, the minstrel gone, let us 
pause a moment and attend to the lessons and 
gather up the uses of the unaccustomed perform- 
ance." 



150 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

A few pages, taken from Mr. Choate's eulogy 
of Daniel Webster, happily illustrate the best and 
most endearing elements of his nature. In no 
other relation, no other phase or feature of his 
life and character, however brilliant and imposing, 
— not even as depicted by Mr. Choate, — does 
Webster appear more worthy of remembrance. 
Yet, how clear, simple, compact, with what wealth 
of thought and economy of words, with what 
freedom from rhetorical ornament, is the revela- 
tion made ! 

" There must be added next, the element of an 
impressive character, inspiring regard, trust, and 
admiration, not unmingled with love. It had, I 
think, intrinsically a charm such as belongs only 
to a good, noble, and beautiful nature. In its 
combination with so much fame, so much force of 
will, and so much intellect, it filled and fascinated 
the imagination and heart. It was affectionate in 
childhood and youth, and it was more than ever 
so in the few last months of his long life. It 
is the universal testimony that he gave to his 
parents, in largest measure, honor, love, obe- 
dience; that he eagerly appropriated the first 
means which he could command to relieve the 
father from the debts contracted to educate his 
brother and himself; that he selected his first 
place of professional practice that he might soothe 



EULOGY OF WEBSTER. 151 

the coming on of his old age ; that all through 
life he neglected no occasion — sometimes when 
leaning on the arm of a friend, alone, with falter- 
ing voice, sometimes in the presence of great as- 
semblies, where the tide of general emotion made 
it graceful — to express his ' affectionate venera- 
tion of him who reared and defended the log 
cabin in which his elder brothers and sisters were 
born, against savage violence and destruction, 
cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its 
roof, and, through the fire and blood of some 
years of Revolutionary War, shrank from no dan- 
ger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and 
to raise his children to a condition better than his 

own.' 

" Equally beautiful was his love of all his kin- 
dred and of all his friends. When I hear him ac- 
cused of selfishness, and a cold, bad nature, I re- 
call him lying sleepless all night, not without 
tears of boyhood, conferring with Ezekiel how the 
darling desire of both hearts should be compassed, 
and he, too, admitted to the precious privileges 
of education ; courageously pleading the cause of 
both brothers in the morning ; prevailing by the 
wise and discerning affection of the mother ; sus- 
pending his studies of the law, and registering 
deeds and teaching school to earn the means, for 
both, of availing themselves of the opportunity 



152 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

which the parental self-sacrifice had placed within 
their reach ; loving him through life, mourning 
him when dead, with a love, and a sorrow very 
wonderful, passing the sorrow of woman ; I recall 
the husband, the father of the living and of the 
early departed, the friend, the counselor of many 
years, and my heart grows too full and liquid for 
the refutation of words. 

" His affectionate nature, craving ever friend- 
ship as well as the presence of kindred blood, dif- 
fused itself through all his private life, gave sin- 
cerity to all his hospitalities, kindness to his eye, 
warmth to the pressure of his hand ; made his 
greatness and genius unbend themsevles to the 
playfulness of childhood, flowed out in graceful 
memories indulged of the past of the dead, of in- 
cidents when life was young and promised to be 
happy, — gave generous sketches of his rivals, — 
the high contention now hidden by the handful of 
earth, — hours passed fifty years ago with great 
authors, recalled for the vernal emotions which 
then they made to live and revel in the soul. 
And from these conversations of friendship, no 
man — no man, old or young, went away to re- 
member one word of profaneness, one allusion of 
indelicacy, one impure thought, one unbelieving 
suggestion ; one doubt cast on the reality of vir- 
tue, of patriotism, of enthusiasm, of the progress 



EULOGY OF WEBSTER. 153 

of man, — one doubt cast on the righteousness, 
or temperance, or judgment to come. 

" Every one of his tastes and recreations an- 
nounced the same type of character. His love of 
agriculture, of sports in the open air, of the out- 
ward world in starlight and storms, and sea and 
boundless wilderness, — partly a result of the in- 
fluences of the first fourteen years of his life, per- 
petuated like its other affections and its other les- 
sons of a mother's love, — the Psalms, the Bible, 
the stories of the wars, — partly the return of an 
unsophisticated and healthful nature, tiring, for 
a space, of the idle business of political life, its 
distinctions, its artificialities, to employments, to 
sensations which interest without agitating the 
universal race alike, as God has framed it, in 
which one feels himself only a man, fashioned 
from the earth, set to till it, appointed to return 
to it, yet made in the image of his Maker, and 
with a spirit that shall not die, — all displayed a 
man whom the most various intercourse with the 
world, the longest career of strife and honors, the 
consciousness of intellectual supremacy, the com- 
ing in of a wide fame, constantly enlarging, left, 
as he was at first, natural, simple, manly, genial, 
kind. 

"I have learned by evidence, the most direct 
and satisfactory, that in the last months of his life, 



154 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

the whole affectionateness of his nature, his con- 
sideration of others, his gentleness, his desire to 
make them happy and to see them happy, seemed 
to come out in more and more beautiful and habit- 
ual expression than ever before. The long day's 
public tasks were felt to be done ; the cares, the 
uncertainties, the mental conflicts of high places 
were ended ; and he came home to recover him- 
self for the few years which he might still expect 
would be his before he should go hence to be here 
no more. And there, I am assured and fully be- 
lieve, no unbecoming regrets pursued him ; no dis- 
content, as for injustice suffered or expectations 
unfulfilled ; no self-reproach for anything done or 
anything omitted by himself; no irritation, no 
peevishness unworthy of his noble nature ; but in- 
stead, love and hope for his country, when she 
became the subject of conversation, and for all 
around him, the dearest and most indifferent, for 
all breathing things about him, the overflow of 
the kindest heart growing in gentleness and be- 
nevolence ; paternal, patriarchal affections seem- 
ing to become more natural, warm, and commu- 
nicative every hour. Softer and yet brighter 
grew the tints on the sky of parting day ; and the 
last lingering rays, more even than the glories 
of noon, announced how divine was the source 
from which they proceeded ; how incapable to 



A CHARACTER TO BE LOVED. 155 

be quenched; how certain to rise on a morning 
which no night should follow. 

" Such a character was made to be loved. It 
was loved. Those who knew and saw it in its 
hour of calm — those who could repose on that 
soft green — loved him. His plain neighbors 
loved him ; and one said, when he was laid in his 
grave, ' How lonesome the world seems ! ' Edu- 
cated young men loved him. The ministers of 
the gospel, the general intelligence of the coun- 
try, the masses afar off loved him. True, they 
had not found in his speeches, read by millions, 
so much adulation of the people ; so much of the 
music which robs the public reason of itself ; so 
many phrases of humanity and philanthropy ; and 
some had told them he was lofty and cold, — 
solitary in his greatness; but every year they 
came nearer and nearer to him, and, as they came 
nearer, they loved him better; they heard how 
tender the son had been, the husband, the brother, 
the father, the friend, and neighbor ; that he was 
plain, simple, natural, generous, hospitable, — the 
heart larger than the brain ; that he loved little 
children and reverenced God, the Scriptures, the 
Sabbath day, the Constitution, and the law, — and 
their hearts clave unto him. More truly of him 
than even of the great naval darling of England 
mio-ht it be said, that < His presence would set the 



156 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

church-bells ringing, and give school-boys a holi- 
day, — would bring children from school and old 
men from the chimney-corner to gaze on him ere 
he died.' The great and unavailing lamentation 
first revealed the deep place he had in the hearts 
of his countrymen." 



CHAPTER IX. 

Preparation for Service in Congress. — Rank and Acceptance. 
— Lost Speeches. — Annexation of Texas. — The Tariff. — 
Home Industry and the Mechanical Arts. — Progress. — 
Concurrent Views of Other Statesmen. 

The minuteness of investigation shown in Mr. 
Choate's professional and classical studies entered 
into his preparatory work as a statesman. On his 
election to the lower House of Congress in 1830, 
and to the Senate in 1841, he took up critically 
the great questions which it was expected might 
require legislative attention. Few members, cer- 
tainly no new members, could have trusted more 
safely to the information already possessed, and 
to the inspirations of the hour in debate. But a 
conscientious regard for the duties to be dis- 
charged, and a cultivated indisposition to take 
that for granted which could be proved, led him 
to an extended course of study, and to its faithful 
continuance as other questions afterwards arose. 

The services of Mr. Choate in the Senate would 
seem to have been more important than those 
rendered in the House of Representatives. This 
may be owing, in part, to the nature of the sub- 



158 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

jects considered, and, in part, to the better pres- 
ervation of his later speeches. But many of his 
arguments were not preserved. The reiterated re- 
quest in the " Globe," that members would write 
out their speeches, had little effect on him. The 
Hon. Alexander H. Stephens recently wrote out 
from memory the concluding part of one of Mr. 
Choate's speeches which had not appeared in the 
" Globe." Professor Brown, always exact in his 
statements, says, " Those who heard Mr. Choate's 
speech in favor of the confirmation of Mr. Ever- 
ett as Minister to England considered it one of 
the most brilliant ever delivered within the Sen- 
ate chamber." So, too, one of the regents of 
the Smithsonian Institution said that Mr. Choate's 
speech before the Board against a departure from 
the library-plan " was the most beautiful that 
ever fell from human lips." Yet we have noth- 
ing of these speeches, nothing of some other 
speeches equally commended. 

We may well treasure up what remains. His 
contributions to the discussion of questions, then 
of grave public concern, are so rich and generous, 
rise so far " above the penury of mere debate," 
that they may be read with interest by those 
whose preconceived notions differ from his views, 
and with gratitude by those who find their cher- 
ished opinions illustrated and confirmed. 



THE QUALITIES OF A STATESMAN. 159 

I have to confess that my early estimate of Mr. 
Choate as a statesman has kindled into admiration 
with the occasional reading of the debates in which 
he took part. It was not merely, or mainly, that 
from the day he was first heard in either House 
he was regarded as worthy of a place in the front 
rank of the distinguished men with whom he 
served ; that no imperious member of either party 
saw in him the mere lawyer, indulging in a style 
peculiar to another forum, and so, after the man- 
ner of Pitt towards Erskine, disdained to reply ; 
that, under his mode of treatment, subjects worn 
out in debate awakened new interest ; or that his 
views were presented with such zeal and power 
as to encourage his friends, with such grace and 
courtesy as almost to persuade his opponents ; but, 
also and especially, that he possessed and exempli- 
fied the sagacity, prudence, judgment, and conti- 
nence proper to the statesman, and the devotion 
which proved the strength and the purity of his 
patriotism. 

He went into the Senate with reluctance ; he 
withdrew from it as soon as he could do so con- 
sistently. But, during his short term of service, 
questions of special difficulty and importance came 
up for consideration. Without undertaking to 
follow him throughout his labors, — the reports 
before me forbid that, and many of the subjects 



160 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

have long been at rest, — I propose to notice his 
attitude in respect to some of the topics to which 
he gave special attention. 

It may be observed that those who think that 
Mr. Choate erred in opposing the annexation of 
Texas should consider his position at the time, 
and seek to distinguish what might possibly have 
been foreseen from what could be learned only by 
a later experience. If he erred, it is proper to 
remember that Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, 
and Silas Wright erred with him. His views were 
clouded and his zeal inflamed by no personal con- 
siderations. He sought no promotion, could suffer 
no loss but such as the country might also suffer. 
Mr. Van Buren failed to receive a nomination for 
the presidential office and Mr. Clay lost his chance 
of an election to it by opposing that annexation. 
Mr. Wright was constrained to decline a nomina- 
tion for the office of vice-president, as its accept- 
ance would have implied a difference of opinion 
between his friend, Mr. Van Buren, and himself 
on that subject. In his " Thirty Years' View," Mr. 
Benton attempts to show that, by the manage- 
ment of the friends of annexation, Mr. Webster 
was forced to retire from the cabinet of President 
Tyler, as his presence there was a hindrance to 
the negotiation. That those statesmen had con- 
sidered the question with great solicitude none 



DISCRIMINATION TO PROTECT LABOR. 161 

can doubt. To finite apprehension, the evils to 
flow from that scheme, — war with Mexico, and 
a larger voluntary surrender to slavery, — were 
imminent and certain ; the benefits, — Texas and 
California, free and contributing to the wealth 
and stability of the Republic, — were remote and 
uncertain. 

An equal degree of respect, and perhaps on 
more specific grounds, is due to Mr. Choate's po- 
sition on the question of protecting American la- 
bor. The expedient of providing the means nec- 
essary to defray the expenses of the government 
by imposing duties on imports, a mode of indirect 
taxation, having been adopted at an early day, 
questions as to the rates of duties to be fixed 
with regard to the wants of the government, act- 
ual and prospective, and to the encouragement or 
protection of our manufacturers, vexed the na- 
tional councils under almost every administration. 
That was due to the fact that, for either purpose, 
the rate of duties fluctuated with the change of 
circumstances, and to the further fact that many 
able and judicious men regarded legislation de- 
signed to stimulate special branches of industry 
into artificial activity as neither politic nor wise. 

In March, 1842, Mr. Choate addressed an argu- 
ment to the Senate to show that, in assessing the 
duties wdiich were to yield the desired income, 

11 



162 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

Congress could discriminate for the protection of 
labor. He faithfully collated the proofs drawn 
from many sources, and built up and fortified an 
argument, legal and historical, which those who 
agree with him can find little occasion to extend 
or modify. But, going beyond the mere question 
of power, he sought, by subtile and delicate in- 
ferences and suggestions, to reconcile his hearers 
to the policy of protection. He appealed to the 
past, to the maxims of statesmen, and gracefully 
referred to the opinion of Mr. Madison. 

It is not to be denied that our commerce with 
foreign nations may be regulated by imposing 
such restraints upon the products of foreign labor 
brought here as may promote our interests. That 
power has often been exercised. All that re- 
mained, after Mr. Choate's exposition, was the in- 
quiry whether the policy which had led to the 
exertion of that power for the encouragement of 
our manufacturers should be continued, and, if so, 
to what extent. 

Mr. Choate took up that question, in some of 
its aspects, in April, 1844, when opposing a bill 
hostile to the theory of protection. 1 As a friend 
of that theory, he was on the defensive ; and it 
must be assumed that he spoke from his knowl- 
edge of our manufacturing interests, and of the 

1 Globe, Appendix, p. 641. 



HOSTILITY TO THE THEORY OF PROTECTION. 163 

consequences which might flow from a sudden 
withdrawal of the protection given them. He 
opened his argument by claiming that the mat- 
ter of protection was not an open question except 
as to the details, the rates of duties to be im- 
posed ; declaring, however, that " When the lights 
of a full and fair experience prescribe the change 
of a duty, it is to be changed." He says, "And 
why not open ? Because, Sir, I find such a sys- 
tem of protection in operation de jure and de facto 
to-day ; because I know perfectly well, or all our 
annals are a dream and a lie, that the American 
people established the Constitution and the Union 
very much to insure the maintenance of such a 
system ; because it has been slowly maturing for 
years ; because so large a concurrence of patriot- 
ism, intelligence, and experience has helped to 
build it up ; because, whether it was wise or un- 
wise to introduce such a system by direct legisla- 
tion at first, it would be supreme madness now, 
now when the first stages are past, when the evil, 
if any there ever was, is all done, and the com- 
pensations of good are just fairly commencing, 
when capital has taken this direction, when prices 
are brought down, skill learned, habits formed, 
machinery accumulated, and the whole scheme of 
things accommodated to it, when its propitious in- 
fluence is felt palpably upon agriculture, upon the 



164 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

comfort and the standing of labor, upon domestic 
and foreign trade, upon defense, upon independ- 
ence, — it would be supreme madness, worthy 
only of a government nodding to its fall, now to 
overturn it ; because, finally, it is the daily labor 
and the daily bread of men, women, and children, 
our countrymen and countrywomen, whom we 
reckon by millions." 

He then goes into particulars, and amplifies the 
proofs, the inference, the illustrations, but only to 
establish the thesis laid down at the opening of 
his speech. A few specific references may suffice 
to show how, by appeals to the rise and progress 
of our manufactures, and to the history of our 
legislation, he seeks to defeat the bill in ques- 
tion. 

After having shown that the people, from the 
first, had sought to be relieved from competition 
with foreign labor, that the early acts of Congress 
granted that protection, according to the condition 
of our manufacturing interests, he says, "And 
now we are prepared to compare or to contrast 
with this the second system — the existing system 
— that which began in 1816 and was matured in 
1824 and 1828. Sir, it is exactly the system of 
1789, accommodated to the altered circumstances 
of the nation and the world. The statesmen of 
the last period followed in the very footsteps of 



PROGRESS OF MECHANIC ARTS. 165 

their fathers. The Congress of 1789 found many 
manfacturing and mechanical arts starting to life, 
and soliciting to be protected. The Congress of 
1816 and that of 1824 found families and groups 
and classes of manufacturing and mechanical arts, 
far more numerous, far more valuable, far more 
sensible also, and with more urgent claims, so- 
liciting protection. In the interval between 1789 
and 1816, this whole enterprise had not only im- 
mensely enhanced its value but had totally changed 
its nature. Instead of a few plain, hardy, coarse, 
simple, household employments, it had become a 
various, refined, sensitive industry — demanding 
associated capital, skill long and highly trained, 
costly and improving machinery — more precious, 
but presenting a far broader mark to the slings 
and arrows of fortune, to hostility, to change, to 
the hotter foreign competitions which its growth 
is sure to provoke. Now you all praise the hus- 
bandry of 1789, which so carefully guarded the 
few blades just timidly peeping forth in the rain 
and sunshine of that April day, hardly worth the 
treading down ; will you depreciate the husbandry 
of 1824, which, with the same solicitude, but at 
the expense of a higher wall, guarded the grain, 
then half-grown, and evincing what the harvest 
was to be ? " 

By way of showing the influence of the pro- 



166 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

tective policy, and how, gradually thus fostered, 
our manufactures had crept into existence, he 
states some interesting facts drawn from the high- 
est authority. Thus, that in 1789 there was not 
a cotton spindle in the United States; that in 
1805 and 1806 there were only 5,000 ; in 1810, 
80.000 ; that the first cotton mill was erected in 
Ehode Island in 1791, another in 1795, and two 
more in Massachusetts in 1803-04 ; and that dur- 
ing the next three years ten more were erected 
or commenced in Rhode Island, and one in Con- 
necticut. 

In his desire to elevate his subject above the 
mere counting of factories and spindles, he says, 
" The real truth is, Sir, that manufacturing and 
mechanical and commercial industry is ' the pro- 
lific source of democratic feeling.' Of the two 
great elements which must be combined in all 
greatness of national character and national des- 
tiny — permanence and progression — these em- 
ployments stimulate the latter; agriculture con- 
tributes to the former. They are of those acting 
and counteracting, opposing yet not discordant, 
powers, from whose reciprocal struggle is drawn 
out the harmony of the universe." 

He invokes the prudence of the Senate thus : 
" Sir, let me respectfully recommend cautious and 
delicate handling of these interests. Vast, vari- 



INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 167 

ous, prosperous as they are, a breath can unmake 
them as a breath has made. This bill strikes a 
blow, the extent, degree, and nature of whose 
injurious effects no man can foresee or limit or 
cure. That which you certainly do mean to do 
involves consequences which you certainly do not 
mean. You begin by saying profits are too high. 
Then you propose to reduce profits. You begin 
by saying more foreign manufactures must be 
imported, because you propose to increase reve- 
nue by reducing duties. This demands, of course, 
enlarged importation. To that extent, to a new 
and undefined extent, you displace, disturb, di- 
minish the domestic market of your own manu- 
factures. But can you really strike down the 
general profits and break up the actual market of 
American labor and yet leave it prosperous, re- 
warded, and contented ? " 

I have thought that, if called upon to consider 
the policy of such legislation when first proposed, 
Mr. Choate would not have favored the theory 
of protection. The conservative character of his 
mind, his respect for principles, for system, as 
contrasted with mere expedients, might have held 
him in restraint. But his relation to the matter 
came later and in quite another form. As he 
looked back, he saw that the legislation which 
began and continued that policy had been favored 



168 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

by statesmen whose wisdom and fidelity he had 
always held in reverence. As he looked round 
him he saw that the growth of the mechanic arts 
was the life of New England, that rough and 
barren places and lonely waterfalls had been made 
profitable, and that the inventive genius of the 
people had been urged forward to countless im- 
provements. So it was that, in representing his 
State and in studying the interests of other States, 
he had been brought to believe that the arts, 
thus nursed into life, should be preserved. He 
accepted the reasons for protecting them given by 
statesmen of 1816 and 1824, and declared that, 
" after the evil is done and the good is beginning," 
it would be unwise to let them die. 

He finds consolation in the fact that his own 
State had not helped to adopt protection. Thus 
he says to Senators, " Consider that Massachusetts 
never made a protective tariff ; that she took no 
leading or influential part in 1816 ; that she op- 
posed that of 1824 with almost her entire vote, 
and with great zeal and ability ; that she voted 
against that of 1828 ; that she has done nothing 
but just to stay where you placed her." Then, as 
a few passages may show, he clings with pride, to 
the further credit due to his State. " Certainly, 
Sir, we are very much in these employments. 
You may thank yourselves for that. And is it not 



A THEORY ARTIFICIAL AND UNSTABLE. 1G9 

an excellent thing for you that we are ? Are we 
not a very much more useful member of the part- 
nership, more useful to the other partners, than 
we could be without? Is it not a good, honest, 
genial, social, 'live and let live' sort of business 
you have driven us into?" "Is it nothing that we 
take and consume, within that single State, an an- 
nual amount of more than forty millions of dollars 
of your productions ? " " Is it not a truly national 
business which we pursue ; national in the surface 
it spreads over ; national in the good it does ; na- 
tional in the affections it generates ? ' " Yes, Sir ! 
Manufacturers and mechanics are unionists by pro- 
fession ; unionists by necessity ; unionists always. 
Learn to know your friends. The time may come 
when you will need them." 

In resisting the reduction of duties in so far as 
the changes might have brought swift and certain 
ruin to manufacturers w r ho had been making: large 
investments on the faith of what seemed to be the 
policy of our government, Mr. Choate was invoic- 
ing the spirit of deliberation which should attend 
legislative reforms. It seems to me that many of 
those who could not accept his views as to the in- 
fluence of such protection upon American labor, 
or as to the inherent merit of such an expedient, 
would have regarded his argument with respect 
if not with favor. But in practice, such protection 



170 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

admits of neither stability, uniformity, nor repose. 
It is one of those artificial devices which, in varied 
forms, return to plague the inventors. When Mr. 
Choate claimed that the existing duties should be 
continued, the manufacturers may have needed 
that protection. They have little need of it now. 
What they need is a market for their commodities. 
The transition from one want to the other is the 
natural result of a policy which gave an artificial 
stimulus to home industry, but discouraged the 
exchange of the fruits of our labor for foreign 
products. It is quite obvious that no tariff 
has benefited the Southern States or helped our 
agricultural or commerical interests. When Mr. 
Choate spoke of New York as " a city which with 
one hand grasps the golden harvests of the West, 
and with the other, like Venice, espouses the ever- 
lasting sea," he indicates how necessary a liberal 
foreign commerce was to her prosperity. But it 
is well to remember that Mr. Choate was not 
peculiar in his views upon this subject. Under 
claims less urgent than those of his constituents, 
other -distinguished statesmen have thought and 
voted as he did. In instances, not to be briefly 
enumerated, protection of specific articles has been 
claimed by those not friendly to the theory in its 
extended application. Thus, for example, Silas 
Wright wished the duties increased on coarse 



MR. MURPHY ON LEGISLATIVE REFORMS. 171 

wool, Thomas H. Benton on lead and indigo. In 
1812, Mr. Wright voted for a protective tariff, 
after having sought to amend the bill, — that be- 
ing the only mode in which the government could 
raise the needful revenue. Mr. Benton voted for 
the protective tariffs of 1821, 1828, and 1832, and 
in the debates in 1811 declared himself willing to 
give protection to manufacturers. In the Con- 
gress of 1811, Henry C. Murphy gave an exposi- 
tion of the principles which, as he thought, should 
be respected in framing a tariff. 1 He believed in 
a tariff for revenue, with such incidental protec- 
tion as could be given alike to all sections of the 
country, — his conception of free trade, — and by 
a strong array of facts and illustrations sought to 
show that the existing tariff imposed higher du- 
ties on some articles used by the poor than on 
those used by the rich, and in several respects 
was sectional and oppressive. 

Mr. Murphy and Mr. Choate had like views as 
to the spirit which should govern legislative re- 
forms. Mr. Murphy, who was, in the usual ac- 
ceptation, an anti-tariff man, says, " Onerous and 
unjust as the present tariff is, partial and oppres- 
sive as its operation is, I am not for breaking 
clown, at a blow, those establishments which have 
been brought into existence and kept up by it; 

1 Globe, Appendix, p. 414. 



172 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

for extreme change in laws affecting the industry 
of the country I hold to be frequently as unjust, 
both to labor and to capital, as a bad law which is 
stable, for they may be accommodated to it. We 
should, therefore, proceed in this, as in other meas- 
ures of reform, gradually, and with a due regard 
to the interests which we have nurtured." 

The imposition of duties on imports to the ex- 
tent necessary to defray the expenses of the gov- 
ernment gives protection to the manufacturers. 
It may, as an incident, benefit labor skilled in the 
mechanic arts. But the benefits do not reach the 
laborers who clear the forest and till the soil, who 
dig the canals, make the roads and bridges, open 
the quarries and build our cities. Such limitations 
must exist. But, if we have a tariff, we can say, 
with Mr. Choate, that when the lights of a full 
and fair experience prescribe the change of a 
duty, it is to be changed. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Indictment of McLeod. — The Rule of Immunity suggested 
by Mr. Fox. — The Course pursued by the Secretary of 
State. — Debates in Congress. — Defense of Mr. Webster. 
— Trial of McLeod. — Act as to Remedial Justice. — Other 
Questions before the Senate. — The Bank. — Mr. Clay's In- 
terference in Debate. 

Soon after Mr. Choate took his seat in the Sen- 
ate, he had occasion to defend the policy of Presi- 
dent Tyler's administration in a matter of national 
concern. In December, 1837, daring the disturb- 
ance in Upper Canada commonly called the Mac- 
kenzie Rebellion, the provincial authorities sent 
over into the State of New York a band of armed 
men, by whom the steamer Caroline was de- 
stroyed, and our government claimed that Great 
Britain should make reparation. In 1841, Alex- 
ander McLeod, a British subject, was indicted in 
the Court of Sessions of Niagara County for the 
murder of Amos Durfee, and was held for trial. 
Great Britain demanded his liberation. Mr. Fox, 
the British Minister, in his notes to Mr. Forsyth, 
the Secretary of State in President Van Buren's 
administration, and to Mr. Webster, as such Sec- 



174 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

retary under President Tjder, assuming that Mc- 
Leod had been thus indicted and held as one of 
those engaged in the destruction of the Caro- 
line, claimed that, as that was the public act of 
persons obeying the order of their superior au- 
thorities, it could not be the ground of legal pro- 
ceedings against one of them ; a theory rejected 
by Mr. Forsyth, but accepted by Mr. Webster. 

Great attention had been, and continued to be, 
given to the affair of the Caroline and to the Mc- 
Leod case, in both Houses of Congress. In adopt- 
ing the rule of personal immunity suggested by 
Mr. Fox, and by his letter instructing the Attor- 
ney-General of the United States to attend the 
trial of McLeocl in New York, and confer with and 
advise his counsel, Mr. Webster drew down upon 
himself severe and prolonged criticism. Some 
able lawyers were of opinion that he had erred in 
seeking to apply that rule to one in McLeod's 
situation. Mr. Calhoun deliberately stated his 
objections to Mr. Webster's course ; Mr. Benton 
fervently criticised and denounced it ; and Mr. 
Buchanan took an early and impressive part in 
the discussion. It was in answer to Mr. Buchan- 
an's first argument on the subject that Mr. Choate 
addressed the Senate on the 11th of June, 1841. 1 

After some preliminary observations, Mr. Choate 

1 Globe, Appendix, p. 417. 



RESPONSIBILITY FOR NATIONAL CRIMES. 175 

stated with precision the ground on which, and on 
which alone, Mr. Webster had recognized the rule 
in question. Thus he said, " What is the conces- 
sion of the Secretary of State? Why, only and 
exactly this : that a soldier or sailor, — de facto 
such, — actually engaged in a military or naval 
enterprise of force, under the authority, in obe- 
dience to the command of his government, and 
keeping himself within the scope of that author- 
ity, is not guilty, as the law of nations is adminis- 
tered to-day, of a crime against the municipal 
code of the country upon which he thus helps to 
carry on war; that he is not punishable as for 
such crime by that country ; and that the respon- 
sibility rests upon his own government alone to 
answer, as nations answer for their crimes to their 
equals. That is the concession. He does not deal 
at all with the case of a soldier straggling away 
from his colors to commit a solitary and sep- 
arate murder. He does not deal with the case 
of alleged excess of authority. He supposes him 
to obey the precise directions of his government, 
and, so doing, he declares him clothed with the 
personal immunity." "If you turn to the fourth 
page of his letter, you may see that the murder 
for which he supposes McLeod indicted ' was a 
murder alleged to have been committed in the 
attack,' forming an inseparable, very painful part 



176 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

of the entire military violence exerted to capture 
and destroy the vessel, and not succeeding it. For 
the purpose of the concession, he takes as true the 
express declaration of Mr. Fox, < that the transac- 
tion on account of which Mr. McLeod has been 
arrested and is to be put on his trial,' including 
the homicide as an unavoidable incident in it, ' was 
a public transaction conducted by Her Majesty's 
government.' Such is the concession. I have the 
honor to submit, first, that the concession is right 
in point of international law, and theft that it was 
the duty of the Secretary of State to make it, and 
of the government to act upon it, exactly as it 
was made and acted upon." 

Mr. Choate characterized this transaction as an 
act of war, — informal, insolemn hostility, — and, 
illustrating his subject freely, he proceeded to an- 
swer some points of special difficulty which had 
been presented by Mr. Buchanan. To show that 
no war need be preceded by a declaration, and 
that the rule of personal exemption from liability 
as for crime extends to actors in wars of the im- 
perfect sort, reprisals or other acts of hostility, he 
cited Rutherforth. That the injustice of the hos- 
tile attack does not affect the soldier's right to im- 
munity, and that no distinction is made between 
regular soldiers and volunteers, he referred to 
Rutherforth and to Vattel. 



THE MCLEOD DEBATE. 177 

Regarding Rutherforth as an authority in re- 
spect to the more modern theory, and wishing to 
qualify some differences between him and an older 
author, Mr. Choate said, " Grotius, admirable for 
his genius, his studies, his most enlarged and ex- 
cellent spirit, lived too early to witness the full 
development of his own grand principles, and the 
accomplishment of his own philanthropic wishes. 
The existing law of nations has been slowly built 
up since his time, and to learn it we must have 
recourse to writers far his inferiors in capacity 
and learning, but fortunate in being able to re- 
cord the ameliorated theory and practice of a bet- 
ter clay." 

In defending his friend, the Secretary of State, 
Mr. Choate was performing a delicate service. 
With what prudence, grace, and dignity he per- 
formed it, his principal opponent in debate ap- 
pears to have been conscious. In his reply, Mr. 
Buchanan said, " I desire to pay a deserved com- 
pliment both to the argument of the Senator from 
Massachusetts, Mr. Choate, and to the feeling dis- 
played by him throughout his remarks." 

Having: thus called attention to Mr. Choate's 
relation to the case of McLeod, I would willingly 
refrain from further reference to it. But as some 
professional interest, not perhaps well-defined, still 
attaches to that case, it may be well to state tne 

12 



178 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

ground on which, as I conceive, it should have 
been placed and regarded throughout. 

At the time Mr. Webster wrote his note to Mr. 
Fox, and his instructions to the Attorney-General, 
this troublesome affair was before the country in 
two aspects ; — one, as to the breach of the ami- 
cable relations existing between the two govern- 
ments, a fit subject for diplomatic discussion ; the 
other, as to the guilt of McLeod, charged with an 
offense against the laws of the State of New York, 
a question of which the courts of that State had 
taken cognizance. It was possible that these two 
offenses, apparently so unlike, might prove to be 
one and the same ; — that charged against the 
prisoner merged in and inseparable from the other. 
But no presumption to that effect could arise. All 
the facts that Mr. Fox, Sir Francis Bond Head, 
and Colonel McNabb could lay before Mr. Webster 
were to the effect that the destruction of the Car- 
oline was deemed necessary in self-defense, and 
was therefore within the scope of the provincial 
authority ; that the armed men by whom the 
vessel was destroyed had been sent over on that 
service ; and that the act had been approved by 
the home government. But whether, apart from 
that service, McLeod had perpetrated the crime 
charged, neither Mr. Fox, Governor Head, nor 
Colonel McNabb could say anything. Indeed, 



ERRONEOUS INFORMATION. 170 

the note in which Mr. Fox told Mr. Webster that 
McLeod had been charged with having been en- 
gaged in the capture and destruction of the Caro- 
line — the death of Durfee a mere incident in the 
attack — began with the words, "I am informed." 
But while the indictment against McLeod, a copy 
of which is before me, has counts for murder and 
arson, the first counts charged him with having 
killed Durfee "feloniously, wilfully, with malice 
aforethought, and with premeditated design." In 
each of the first counts, it is charged that the 
crime was committed by him in the Town and 
County of Niagara ; in neither of them is any ref- 
erence made to the Caroline affair. It is obvious, 
therefore, that the information which Mr. Fox 
had received, and on which he stated to Mr. Web- 
ster the charge supposed to have been made against 
McLeod, was not correct. This error may have 
arisen from the fact that neither Mr. Fox nor any 
of those with whom he had conferred had ever 
read the indictment. In his correspondence, Mr. 
Webster had not noticed the question whether Mc- 
Leod might not be guilty, quite apart from the 
capture of the vessel, nor had that question been 
suggested in the case that was laid before him. 
Moreover, there is reason to suppose that Webster 
himself had never seen that indictment. A mem- 
ber of Congress, a distinguished jurist and states- 



180 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

man, while defending Mr. Webster as warmly as 
Mr. Choate had done, declared that the case might 
become proper for a jury. Thus Mr. Caleb Crush- 
ing said, " It may be, for instance, that McLeod, if 
he killed Durfee, did so from private malice, and, 
if so, he is clearly responsible to the laws of New 
York for the act ; and, if he did so, I cannot but 
think that the English government, instead of un- 
dertaking to protect him, would be glad to see 
him punished, and the rather if he should have 
sought purposes of private malice under the cover 
of simulated obedience to the orders of his gov- 
ernment. It may be that these orders did not 
cover this fact. 1 

The case having been moved into the Supreme 
Court of the State of New York, and a habeas 
corpus granted by Mr. Justice Cowen, an applica- 
tion for the discharge of McLeod absolutely, or on 
his own recognizance, or by a nolle prosequi, was 
heard and denied. In his opinion, Judge Cowen 
considered the law of nations quite at large ; and, 
as the two governments were at peace, no decla- 
ration of war having been made, he came to the 
conclusion that no rule growing out of the usages 
of nations could be applied to the relief of the 
prisoner. It must be conceded that this part of 
the opinion was not necessary to the decision. 

1 Globe, 1841, Appendix, p. 422. 



VIEWS OF HON. JOHN W. EDMUNDS. 181 

But, if the rule suggested by Mr. Fox had been 
accepted by Justice Co-wen, McLeod must still 
have been held for trial. In no possible view of 
the case could the application have been granted. 

The idea that McLeod should be discharged or 
be allowed to go on his recognizance could not 
have been seriously entertained. 

As the indictment was for murder, the regular 
practice was not even to accept bail. That is the 
rule now, and I trust ever will be. The instances 
in which bail has been taken after such indict- 
ments are exceptional, clearly distinguished by 
qualifying circumstances from the case of Mc- 
Leod. As the Governor of the State, Mr. Sew- 
ard, an able lawyer, had refused to interfere, and 
as the District Attorney of Niagara County and 
the Attorney-General of the State were before 
the court claiming that McLeod should be tried 
by a jury, a nolle prosequi could not have been 
entered. The power and the duty of the court 
on the habeas corpus were well stated in The 
People vs. Martin, 1 Park. Cr. C. 191, by the 
Hon. John W. Edmunds, a judge of great learn- 
ing and experience. In speaking of the Mc- 
Leod case, that learned judge said, " The question 
raised there was, whether, after indictment, the 
court, on habeas corpus, would entertain the 
question of guilt or innocence, and on that ques- 



182 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

tion the authorities had been very uniform that it 
would not; and for the very plain and simple 
reason that, as the testimony before the grand 
jury would not be written, and could not be looked 
into, the court or officer on the habeas corjms could 
not ascertain on what evidence the grand jury 
had acted, and could not entertain the question 
without receiving precisely the same testimony 
which the jury would be obliged to receive on 
the trial, and thus in fact usurping the province of 
the jury. Hence it has been the practice of the 
English courts and our own, which was followed 
in the McLeod case, not to look into the question 
of guilt or innocence on habeas corpus after in- 
dictment." 

I have never believed that Mr. Webster wished 
to have McLeod liberated without a formal trial. 
He could not have properly moved a step in that 
direction without an investigation. When, on in- 
quiry, he had learned what the terms of the in- 
dictment were, and that, as shown before Judge 
Cowen, Durfee had been killed when he was at 
some distance from the Caroline, and, possibly, 
without his having been engaged in resisting the 
attack on the vessel, Mr. Webster would have 
favored a formal trial, or, what would have been 
most becoming, declined to interfere. His friends, 
while approving his views on the narrow basis 



END OF THE MCLEOD DIFFICULTIES. 183 

stated, would have admitted that a formal investi- 
gation was necessary. That question did not arise 
in the debate in which Mr. Choate took part, save 
that, in defending Mr. Webster, he lays stress, as 
we have seen, upon the fact that he does not deal 
"with the case of a soldier straggling away from 
his colors to commit a solitary and separate mur- 
der." But, if any argument and admonition were 
necessary, the observations I have cited from Mr. 
Cushing's speech would have been sufficient. 

It is grateful to remember how happily this 
affair, in both of its aspects, was disposed of by 
the general government and by the Supreme 
Court of New York, each acting in its appro- 
priate sphere, without undue and factitious in- 
terference. A few gentle words by Ashburton, 
in the tone of national regret, were accepted in 
satisfaction for the forcible intrusion upon our 
territory ; and, the venue in the McLeod case 
having been changed to Oneida County, he was 
tried before Judge Gridley and a jury, and was 
acquitted. 

The testimony against him was as to his silly 
and repeated boast that he had helped to destroy 
the Caroline, and " had finished Durfee." But it 
appeared that McLeod was not one of the party 
sent over to capture the vessel, and that he was 
not in the State of New York at the time Durfee 



184 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

was killed. The proof to establish the alibi was 
clear and conclusive. 

After the excitement caused by that case had 
subsided, the power of the United States court 
was extended by the Remedial Justice Bill, passed 
July 7, 1842. The purpose was to authorize the 
removal from the state courts, at an early stage 
of an accusation, cases like that of McLeod, and 
to give to the federal courts power to inquire 
into contentions likely to create international com- 
plications. The measure was just and wise. Mr. 
Choate gave it his earnest support. He thus 
stated the practice under the bill : " The national 
tribunals interpose so far only as to determine 
whether the laws of nations entitle the prisoner 
to his discharge. If they do, he is discharged ; 
if not, whatever the evidence or the deficiency of 
evidence against him, he is remanded to the court 
of the State for general trial." 

It may be observed that had this law and prac- 
tice been in full force before the charge against 
McLeod was made, and had the first counts of the 
indictment, to which I have referred, been omit- 
ted, and it had appeared that McLeod was one of 
the party ordered over by the provincial author- 
ity, and that the death of Durfee occurred as an 
unavoidable incident in the capture of the Caro- 
line, the prisoner might have been released ; but, 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF IMPORTANCE. 185 

with the case as it actually existed, McLeod could 
have had no relief under the Remedial Bill. 

Other subjects of importance engaged Mr. 
Choate's attention while he remained in the Sen- 
ate. In the discussion of some of them, he took 
a leading part. Of his three speeches relating 
to the Oregon Territory, one only has been pre- 
served. It is conciliatory in spirit and of com- 
manding ability. He contributed largely to the 
confirmation of the treaty between this govern- 
ment and Great Britain, which had been ne^o- 
tiated by Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton ; a 
treaty by which important claims, long held in 
suspense, were adjusted, and causes of offense, 
which threatened to disturb the amicable relations 
of the two governments, were removed. 

In common with the leading members of the 
Whig party, Mr. Choate was in favor of creat- 
ing a national bank. It seems probable that if 
the President, Mr. Harrison, had survived, such 
an institution would have been established. But 
upon his death on the 4th of April, 1841, Mr. 
Tyler became President. When he was chosen 
Vice-President, it was known that, on constitu- 
tional grounds, he was opposed to such a bank. 
As might have been expected, he held to that 
opinion. 

In the special session of 1841, efforts were 



186 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

made to create such a bank — a Fiscal Agency — 
and notably upon a plan which had been reported 
by the Secretary of the Treasury. To the bill, 
founded on that plan, an amendment was pro- 
posed to the effect that the assent of a State 
should be obtained before establishing branches 
of the bank therein. Mr. Choate supported the 
amendment in a speech a from which I take some 
extracts. He says, " I do not vote for the bill 
from any doubt of the constitutional power of 
Congress to establish branches all over the States, 
possessing the discounting function, directly and 
adversely against their united assent. I differ, 
in this particular, wholly from the Senator who 
moves the amendment. I have no more doubt 
of your power to make such a bank and such 
branches anywhere than of your power to build 
a post-office or a custom-house anywhere. This 
question for me is settled, and settled rightly. I 
have the honor and happiness to concur on it with 
all, or almost all, of our greatest names ; with our 
national judicial tribunal, and with both the two 
great, original, political parties; with Washing- 
ton, Hamilton, Marshall, Story, Madison, Monroe, 
Crawford, and with the entire Republican admin- 
istration and organization of 1816 and 1817. 

" But it does not follow, because we possess this 

1 Globe, Appendix, p. 355. 



C HO ATE SUPPORTS THE AMENDMENT. 187 

or any other power, that it is wise or needful, in 
any given case, to attempt to exert it. We may 
find ourselves so situated that we cannot do it if 
we would, for want of the concurrence of other 
judgments; and therefore a struggle might be as 
unavailing as it would be mischievous and un- 
seemly. We may find ourselves so situated that 
we ought not to do it if we could. All things 
which are lawful are not convenient, are not prac- 
ticable, are not wise, are not safe, are not kind. 
A sound and healing discretion, therefore, the 
moral coercion of irresistible circumstances, may 
fitly temper, and even wholly restrain, the exer- 
cise of the clearest power ever belonging to hu- 
man government. 

" By uniting here on this amendment, you put 
an effective bank in operation, to some useful and 
substantial extent, by the first of January. Turn 
now to the other alternative. Sir, if you adhere 
to the bill reported by the committee, I fully be- 
lieve you pass no bank charter this session. I 
doubt whether you carry it through Congress. If 
you can, I do not believe you can make it a law. 
I have no doubt you will fail to do so. I do not 
enter on the reasons of my belief. The rules of 
orderly proceedings here, decorum, pride, regret 
would all prevent my doing it. I have no per- 
sonal or private grounds for the conviction which 



1S8 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

holds me fast ; but I judge on notorious and, to 
my mind, decisive indications ; and I know that it 
is my duty to act on my belief, whether well or 
ill-founded, and however conjecturally derived. 

" Let me say, Sir, that to administer the con- 
tested powers of the Constitution is, for those of 
you who believe that they exist, at all times a 
trust of difficulty and delicacy. I do not know 
that I should not venture to suggest this general 
direction for the performance of that grave duty. 
Steadily and strongly assert their existence ; do 
not surrender them ; retain them with a provi- 
dent forecast, for the time may come when you 
will need to enforce them by the whole moral and 
physical strength of the Union ; but do not exert 
them at all so long as you can, by other, less of- 
fensive expedients of wisdom, effectually secure 
to the people all the practical benefits which you 
believe they were inserted into the Constitution 
to secure. Thus will the Union last longest, and 
do most good. To exercise a contested power 
without necessity, on the notion of keeping up 
the tone of government, is not much better than 
tyranny, and very improvident and impolitic tyr- 
anny, too. It is turning ' extreme medicine into 
daily bread.' It forgets that the final end of gov- 
ernment is not to exert restraint but to do good. 

" Within this general view of the true mode 



CONTESTED CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS. 189 

of administering contested powers, I think the 
measure we propose is as wise as it is concilia- 
tory ; wise, because it is conciliatory ; wise, be- 
cause it reconciles a strong theory of the Consti- 
tution with a discreet and kind administration of 
it. I desire to give the country a bank. Well, 
here is a mode in which I can do it. Shall I re- 
fuse to do it in that mode because I cannot at the 
same time and by the same operation gain a vic- 
tory over the settled constitutional opinions, and 
show my contempt for the ancient and unappeas- 
able jealousy and prejudices of not far from half 
of the American people ? Shall I refuse to do it 
in that mode because I cannot at the same time 
and by the same operation win a triumph of con- 
stitutional law over political associates who agree 
with me on nine in ten of all the questions which 
divide the parties of the country ; whose energies 
and eloquence, under many an October and many 
an August sun, have contributed so much to the 
transcendent reformation which has brought you 
into power ? 

" There is one consideration more which has 
had some influence in determining my vote. I 
confess that I think that a bank established in the 
manner contemplated by this amendment stands, 
in the actual circumstances of our time, a chance 
to lead a quieter and more secure life, so to speak, 



190 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

than a bank established by the bill. I think it 
worth our while to try to make, what never yet 
was seen, a popular national bank. Judging from 
the past and the present, from the last years of 
the last bank and the manner in which its exist- 
ence was terminated, from the tone of debate 
and of the press, and the general indications of 
public opinion, I acknowledge an apprehension 
that such an institution, created by a direct exer- 
tion of your power, throwing off its branches 
without regrard to the wishes or wants of the 
States, as judged of by themselves, and without 
any attempt to engage their auxiliary coopera- 
tion, diminishing the business and reducing the 
profits of the local banks, and exempted from 
their burdens, — that such an institution may not 
find so quiet and safe a field of operation as is de- 
sirable for usefulness and profit. I do not wish to 
see it standing like a fortified post on a foreign 
border, never wholly at peace, always assailed, 
always belligerent ; not falling perhaps, but never 
safe, the nurse and the prize of unappeasable hos- 
tility. No, Sir. Even such an institution, under 
conceivable circumstances, it might be our duty 
to establish and maintain in the face of all oppo- 
sition and to the last gasp. But so much evil at- 
tends such a state of things, so much insecurity, 
so much excitement ; it would be exposed to the 



INTERRUPTION OF DEBATE. 191 

pelting of such a pitiless storm of the press and 
public speech ; so many demagogues would get 
good livings by railing at it ; so many honest men 
would really regard it as unconstitutional, and as 
dangerous to business and liberty, that it is worth 
an exertion to avoid it. . . . Sir, I desire to see 
the bank of the United States become a cherished 
domestic institution, reposing in the bosom of our 
law and of our attachments. Established by the 
concurrent action or on the application of the 
States, such might be its character. There will 
be a struggle on the question of admitting the 
discount power into the States ; much good sense 
and much nonsense will be spoken and written ; 
but such a struggle will be harmless and brief; 
and, when that is over, all is over. The States 
which exclude it will hardly exasperate them- 
selves farther about it. Those which admit it will 
soothe themselves with the consideration that the 
act is their own, and that the existence of this 
power of the branch is a perpetual recognition of 
their sovereignty. Thus might it sooner cease 
to wear the alien, aggressive, and privileged as- 
pect which has rendered it offensive, and become 
sooner blended with the mass of domestic inter- 
ests, cherished by the same regards, protected by 
the same and by a higher law." 

At the close of this speech, Mr. Choate was 



192 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

interrupted by Mr. Clay, and an altercation, 
questions and answers, followed. The Washing- 
ton " Globe " had a full and correct report of the 
affair. Professor Brown gives a like account. 
But, in his " Recollections of Rufus Choate," Mr. 
Whipple has a different version. As he was not 
present to witness the occurrence, what is said 
in % his "Recollections' to the prejudice of Mr. 
Choate may be allowed to pass without correction. 
In stating his "belief that the bill, as reported, 
would not become a law, Mr. Choate had in view 
the well-known opinion of President Tyler. That 
is obvious. He could not with propriety refer 
directly to that opinion, and says, " Decorum, 
pride, regret, would all prevent my doing it." 
Regret for what? Regret for the fact that the 
President was, as everybody knew, opposed to a 
national bank. So he judges on what he calls no- 
torious indications. What Mr. Choate said would 
not support the opinion that he had conferred 
with the President or the Secretary of State on 
the subject. He stated his own convictions, his 
right to act upon them, " however conjecturally 
derived." There was, therefore, nothing to jus- 
tify the imputation implied in the questions put 
by Mr. Clay. That Mr. Choate did not lose his 
temper or self-possession is evident from his last 
replies to Mr. Clay's demands : — 



AN APOLOGY. 193 

(1.) " Sir, I insist on my right to explain what 
I did say, in my own words ; " and (2.) " He will 
have to take the answer as I choose to give it." 
That Mr. Clay was utterly wrong appears from 
the fact that the next morning, in the Senate 
chamber, he made an explanation in the nature of 
an apology. 

Mr. Choate's argument in support of the amend- 
ment to the bill was wise and conciliatory. A 
bank thus created would have been, in a sense, a 
state institution, its character utterly unlike that 
of the old United States Bank. His argument, so 
moderate in tone, so persuasive, would almost lead 
us to think well of such an agency; to think as 
well of it as we can of our present national banks. 

13 



CHAPTER XL 

A Short Term in Congress a Sacrifice. — Resigns to return to 
the Profession. — Modest Estimate of his own Powers. — 
The Rewards of Professional Work. — Continued until his 
Health failed. — His Last Case. — Cheerful to the Last. — 
A Sea Voyage for Health too late. — His Death. — His 
Love of the Union. — Conversations with Mr. Pratt. — Ap- 
prehends Civil War. — In that War, after his Death, he is 
well represented. 

A few words of explanation may be due to the 
reader who regrets that a more minute delinea- 
tion of Mr. Choate's career as statesman has not 
been given. Many of the subjects in the discus- 
sion of which he took part in the lower House, 
and in the Senate, have lost their significance, or 
have become familiar in history. Many of his 
speeches have not been preserved, and we can- 
not, from mere hearsay, outline or estimate the 
arguments which gave weight and attraction to 
them. His published efforts are widely read, 
and he who reads them carefully, catching their 
spirit and tone, may claim to know him better 
than he who is familiar with the mere acts and 
incidents of his life. It has, therefore, seemed 



A SHORT TERM IN CONGRESS. 195 

to be sufficient for the present purpose to refer 
in general terms to the course pursued by him 
in Congress, and to call attention to his treatment 
of some subjects of importance. 

In view of Mr. Choate's usefulness in his pro- 
fession, and of his love of home-life and quiet 
study, some may regret that he was ever called 
into the legislative councils. His term in both 
Houses of Congress, little more than six years, 
was long enough to impose great sacrifices, but 
not long enough to secure the highest rewards. 
No doubt there were some compensations. New 
channels for exertion were opened to him, and 
he had the satisfaction of discussing some of the 
vexed questions of the day before deliberative 
bodies composed of men of great political sagac- 
ity and experience. He must have highly valued 
the new friends who were thus drawn to him, 
some of whom ever held him in close and loving 
remembrance. But to enable a member of either 
House, whatever be his gifts and attainments, to 
achieve national fame, and become a vital pres- 
ence in the memory of the people, he must re- 
main in the service long enough to assume special 
relations to a great variety of measures of public 
interest. The mention of such measures would 
thereafter recall the name of the member, the 
mention of the name recall the subjects with 



196 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

which he was identified. Such has been the in- 
heritance of Clay, of Webster, of Sumner, of Ben- 
ton, whose terms ranged from fourteen to thirty 
years. 

It may be inferred that such honors sat lightly 
on Mr. Choate, inasmuch as he retired from the 
Senate before the term for which he had been 
elected had expired, that he might resume with 
greater freedom his practice in the courts. In- 
deed, honors and distinctions which he could 
have gracefully accepted, but which would have 
changed his relations to the law, were not desired 
by him. Thus it was that his friends sought in 
vain to induce him to accept the position, in- 
formally tendered, of professor in the Cambridge 
Law School, a place made illustrious by the ser- 
vices of Judge Story. So, also, he declined the 
office of judge of the Supreme Court of Massa- 
chusetts, offered him by Governor Briggs; and 
the yet higher distinction of justice of the Su- 
preme Court of the nation, as successor of Judge 
Woodbury. 

I have thought that Mr. Choate had a modest 
estimate of his own powers. In the trial and 
argument of causes, he had had no occasion to 
doubt his ability to perform his whole duty. But 
he may not have been satisfied that he could in 
equal degree discharge his duties as judge. The 



MODEST ESTIMATE OF HIS OWN POWERS. 197 

notion prevailed in the profession, and perhaps 
was credited by him, that, wanting the judicial 
temperament, the greatest advocate, whose modes 
of thought and of reasoning peculiar to the bar 
could not be easily qualified, might not be a great 
judge. He must have regarded the late Benjamin 
R. Curtis as an exception to that theory, since he 
favored his appointment as justice of the Supreme 
Court, the place Mr. Choate himself might have 
accepted. He seldom erred in estimating the 
qualities of other minds, and did not err in this 
instance ; the great advocate became preeminent 
as a judge. 

But there were serious objections to Mr. Choate's 
acceptance of judicial office. By years of study, 
devotion, and work suited to his taste and genius, 
he had secured a position and an income that 
might have satisfied the ambition of almost any 
man. It would have required a great effort to 
cast aside the robes he had with honor worn so 
long. In that service, without being hard or ex- 
acting, without wronging any man, he had se- 
cured the means necessary to support his family 
in a manner suited to his position, to educate his 
children, to collect the books he loved, to pro- 
mote the interests of schools and of moral and 
literary associations, and, in a generous spirit, to 
relieve the wants of others, — even of those who 



198 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

had no claims upon him. But it remained for 
him to lay up more securely a competence for his 
family. To that end he must continue his profes- 
sional work. He did so until his desires would 
seem to have been fulfilled. 

The qualities of Mr. Choate's nature, his habits, 
the incentives which moved him, and the prin- 
ciples which he cherished have been illustrated 
by my correspondents. From first to last he ap- 
pears to have been true to his own nature. Early 
in life he saw his vocation, and, without faltering 
or repining, accepted it, — the representative of 
those who, being dumb, need an advocate. Had 
he been proud, austere, or imperious in tone and 
manner, no one would have wondered ; but he 
was neither. In his courtesy to his brethren at 
the bar, in his kindness to his juniors, — too sov- 
ereign to seem like condescension, — in his fidelity 
to his clients, in his genial spirit and sweetness of 
temper, in his freedom from egotism, and in his 
love of study and submission to labor, he gave 
grace and dignity to a weary and a useful life. 
What more could he do to perfect a character 
which the student may regard as an example ? 
What more to inspire us with love and grati- 
tude ? 

Mr. Choate continued his professional work after 
his physical strength had begun to fail. He was 



II IS DEATH. 199 

before the Supreme Court, in Gage vs. Tudor, in 
March, 1859. The next month he attended at 
chambers on a mere motion. Later in the month, 
and at Salem, he took part in a contention as to 
the validity of a will, but was not able to remain 
in court until the case had been fully heard. 1 We 
are told that he never went to his office again. 

I have few words to add. I put aside letters, 
in which friends have given many particulars as 
to his sufferings for some weeks after he had left 
the court for the last time. As I am not writing 
the life of Mr. Choate in detail, I spare myself 
and the reader the pain of such recitals. It is 
grateful, however, to learn that, to the last, his 
mind was clear and active ; that the cheerfulness 
which had been a sovereign trait of his charac- 
ter remained; and that the lessons — fragments 
of favorite authors — which his daughters and 
his son read to him, were heard with a lively in- 
terest, the old interest, and were soothing to his 
spirit. 

After much consideration, and upon medical 
advice, he undertook a voyage to Europe to im- 
prove his health. But, alas ! it was too late. He 
left Boston on the Europa, on the 29th of June. 
Not being able to continue the voyage, he landed 

1 My friend, Benjamin E. Valentine, Esq., having examined the 
records, assures me that this was Mr. Choate's last case. 



200 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

at Halifax, where, on the 13th of July, 1859, he 
died. 

From his studies and convictions, Rufus Choate 
was conservative. He had a profound regard for 
our organic laws. To him the Constitution was 
sacred, to be observed, or to be amended in the 
orderly methods appointed. He saw that slavery 
was a state institution, under the control of, and 
to be abolished by, the States where it existed ; 
and that Congress had no power to touch the 
question whether it should be continued or not. 
He deprecated our feverish and fruitless discus- 
sions as to the duties of the Southern States, — 
our attempts to regulate, as a matter of sentiment, 
an evil which we could not cure or even modify. 
This drew clown upon him the reproach of a party 
which claimed to represent the spirit of higher 
and more humane laws than those which had been, 
or by our instrumentality could be, enacted. Yet 
it cannot well be suggested that the man who is 
now loyal to the Constitution and to our laws is 
entitled to more respect than was Mr. Choate, who 
ever cherished such a spirit. 

Mr. Choate sought to inspire the people with 
such love for the Constitution and the Union as 
might make secession impossible. Had he lived, 
he would doubtless have continued that instruction, 
in the hope that free men, acting faithfully and 



CONVERSATION WITH MR. PRATT. 201 

with patience, might devise means for the cure of 
all the evils of the body politic. I believe that, 
had the sentiment of the North and of the South 
been ripe for it, his plan would have been to pur- 
chase the freedom of the slaves. But there was 
no hour in his life when such a scheme could have 
been suggested. He foresaw the trouble which 
at last came, and with an anxious heart, solicitous 
for the preservation of the Union, gave no uncer- 
tain indication of what he would do, should he live 
until the day of wrath and conflict. 

Edward Ellerton Pratt, Esq., gives me the 
substance of a conversation which he had with Mr. 
Choate in the summer of 1856. They were sit- 
ting on the rocks at Marblehead, and looking over 
the waters in which the frigate Constitution was 
chased by British cruisers in the war of 1812-14. 
Mr. Pratt says, " In speaking of that war, the 
question arose as to the next struggle in which 
this country might be engaged. Mr. Choate said, 
' I shall not probably live to see it, but I fear there 
will ere long be a civil war between the North and 
the South.' I expressed my horror at such an 
idea, and asked how that could be possible. Said 
he, ' It is a very easy thing to get up such a con- 
flict when one large section of the country, in- 
flamed by interest, pride, and resentment, is hos- 
tile and united. We at the North, if we wished, 



202 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

could bring it about ; so could they at the South ; 
and the adverse feeling is getting so bitter that 
one side or the other may provoke the issue. If 
the Democrats, now about to elect Buchanan, have 
prudence and good temper, they can tide the 
trouble over for a while, perhaps until there may 
come a better understanding and more friendly 
feeling. But I fear they will not show such mod- 
eration and prudence.' Mr. Choate appeared to 
think it probable that within ten years a civil war 
would break out, and told me that it would be my 
duty, the duty of all, to do what was possible to 
maintain the Union whether war could or could 
not be averted." 

The war came, and, when the sound of the 
guns at Fort Sumter awakened the North, Rufus 
Choate, Jr., then a young lawyer in Boston, and 
Joseph M. Bell, a lawyer of large reading and 
experience, who had married Mr. Choate's eldest 
daughter, entered the service ; in a sense they 
gave their lives for the suppression of the Rebel- 
lion. 

Rufus Choate, Jr., served in the war with great 
distinction. He was in several engagements ; and, 
though ill at the time, took part in the battle of 
Cedar Mountain. His exposures brought on the 
neuralgia, and he was compelled to resign his 
commission as captain, and return home. After 




\Y. a & 






REPRESENTED IN THE WAR. 203 

a long illness, he died on the 15th of January, 
18G6. 

Major Bell was a member of General Butler's 
staff at New Orleans, and acted as provost judge 
with great acceptance. After returning to Vir- 
ginia, he was stricken with paralysis while presid- 
ing over an important trial at Norfolk. After a 
time he was brought home. He remained an in- 
valid until his death on the 10th of September, 
1868. 

By a merciful dispensation, it was thus given 
to those loyal and devoted men to die in the pres- 
ence of loving friends. Thus also it was given to 
Rufus Choate himself, who had in the spirit of 
his life fought for the Union, to be represented 
in the final struggle for its preservation. Had he 
been alive, what more could he have done, what 
other sacrifice could he have offered up, for that 
Union and the Constitution ? 



CHAPTER XII. 

Eufus Choate and Lord Macaulay : a Contrast. 1 

The double relation which distinguished men 
have held to other men often excites curiosity and 
regret. Their public life and service may be well 
known, their private life and character, however 
worthy, may remain unknown. The information 
is generally sought for in biographies. But the 
veil which separates those conditions, or states of 
being, may intervene even between friends, and 
limit or qualify the most faithful revelations. We 
may well be grateful, however, for delineations by 
writers of taste and judgment, who knew, as well 
as could be known, the men whose genius and 
character they have earnestly and lovingly sought 
to commemorate. Thus could Professor Brown 
write of Rufus Choate, and Mr. Trevelyan of Lord 
Macaulay. 

The work by Trevelyan was necessary. It was 
well that something more definite and personal 
than had been learned from Carlisle, Arnold, and 

1 This paper was written before the previous chapters and for sep- 
arate use. 



MACAULATS SELF-ESTIMATE. 205 

Cockburn should be known of Macaulay. Beyond 
casual references, some sketches, and a few anec- 
dotes, grown so familiar that no prudent diner-out 
would venture to repeat them, we knew him from 
his speeches and course in Parliament, his Essays 
and Reviews, his services in India, and from the 
History. But the inferences to be drawn were 
general ; the veil behind which lay his private life 
remained undisturbed. As an author, he came to 
us after elaborate preparation, as if in state dress, 
and took the reading public by storm. His writ- 
ings had a fascination strong enough to divert stu- 
dents from their lessons, the readers of romantic 
tales from their dissipations. At the time when 
he was expressing to Mr. Everett his surprise that 
any but " a few highly educated men " in this 
country were interested in his History, our 
wives and daughters' were reading it. It seems 
incredible that he could have thought his work 
too profound or " insular in spirit " for general 
readers; a history which, though dealing with 
principles in large relations, appealed strongly 
to the imagination, gave the romantic side of 
events, and, in highly wrought and felicitous de- 
scriptions, called, from the depths of the past, 
forms regal in their adornment and beauty. But 
in calmer hours, Mr. Macaulay may have had a 
just estimate of his labors. He must have known 



206 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

that his services in Parliament had been of less 
value and importance than those of Brougham ; 
that he had lacked the almost prophetic appre- 
hension, the logical precision, the harmony of 
thought and expression of Edmund Burke; and 
that his Essays, rich in poetic sentiment and illus- 
tration, his criticisms, more acrid to the taste than 
the invectives of Junius, could not take deep root 
in firm soil. But, in the retrospect, he was, no 
doubt, satisfied with the policy which had led him 
to seek relation with the names of some of the 
men who had helped to shape history, as well as 
with an interesting period of the national life of 
England. In that he was wise, as the conserva- 
tive element, respected by time, lies in the na- 
ture of the subject rather than in an author's 
mode of treatment. Macaulay's verses will be 
read, as they are the " Lays of Ancient Rome ; " 
his History will be known when most of his other 
writings are forgotten. In the coming genera- 
tions, none will care whether Croker was a bad 
fellow, and ignorant of Greek ; whether Barere, 
when he ceased to write trifles, began to write 
lies ; whether Robert Montgomery was a poet or 
not. 

But Macaulay's strongest claim to remembrance 
rests on his services in India. He thus won a 
place in legal history. But for that service, we 



CLOSE RELATION OF NATURAL GIFTS. 207 

should have no pride in the fact that he was a 
lawyer, and be less ready, perhaps, to recognize 
the resemblances and the contrasts which existed 
between some of his characteristics and those of 
Rufus Choate. Not that they had anything in 
common, as lawyers, save in their mastery of 
legal principles applied by the one in his labors 
in India, illustrated by the other in the labors of 
his life. Mr. Choate never had occasion to frame 
a code for a peculiar people. Mr. Macaulay, hav- 
ing been called to the English bar, held a short 
and silent flirtation with his mistress, the law, and, 
finding her coy and cold, gave her up. He had, 
indeed, one case in court and but one. There 
was, therefore, nothing like professional brother- 
hood between him and Mr. Choate. The likeness 
and unlikeness, material to our purpose, are to be 
found elsewhere. 

They were fortunate in their lineage ; each 
came of good stock. They had admirable train- 
ing at home, cherished great love for those related 
to them by family ties, and were blessed in the 
return of that love. With a poetic temperament, 
exquisite sensibility, and a fondness for the ro- 
mantic, were united loyalty to the truth, and 
aversion to everything like duplicity, or artifice 
in life and conduct. They also had great indus- 
try, devotion to study, and desire to excel. But 



208 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

nature, as if to perfect her work, and set these, 
her favorite children, quite apart from others, 
gave to each of them great, indeed marvelous, 
powers of memory. In their boyhood they be- 
came so familiar with Bunyan's Pilgrim that they 
could recite most of it. Later in life, they appre- 
hended and retained the sense of what they had 
rapidly or casually read, and could recall the dates 
and the relations of events. Instances illustrative 
of such powers, when suddenly called into exercise, 
have been given by their biographers. In speak- 
ing of his knowledge of certain books, Mr. Macau- 
lay said that if, by some miracle of Vandalism, 
they were destroyed off the face of the earth, he 
could, from memory, reproduce them. It is quite 
possible that Mr. Choate could have made a like 
boast, if he had allowed himself to speak of the 
extent of his own acquisitions. It appears that 
what he had read, and considered worthy of atten- 
tion, he remembered to a remarkable extent, and 
could use with precision, ease, and celerity. That 
is clearly shown in some of his speeches delivered 
in the heat and pressure of debate. The powers 
of memory possessed by Choate and Macaulay 
challenge our admiration, however, not simply be- 
cause they were marvelous in sudden and signal 
display but because of their healthy origin and 
growth ; they were held to the last in perfect co- 



COMPARISON OF THEIR WORK. 209 

ordination with their other powers. Both were ar- 
dently devoted to classical studies, had an intimate 
acquaintance with the Latin and the Greek, and 
knew something of some other languages. They 
did not take up the German early in life ; — Mr. 
Choate studied it with his daughter, Mr. Macaulay 
on his return voyage from India, and after his 
method of beginning with the Bible, which he 
could read without a dictionary. In some respects 
he was more fortunate than Mr. Choate. He had 
more leisure, a larger acquaintance with learned 
men and with society, and should have attained 
a higher and broader culture. He had access to 
many books which could not be found in this coun- 
trv, but was a mere reader of some works of im- 
portance, which Mr. Choate studied, and in parts 
translated. He wrote out his speeches, and revised 
them for the press, and with care treasured up his 
thoughts and words. Mr. Choate let his thoughts 
and words — many speeches and arguments which 
had excited unbounded enthusiasm in learned men 
and severe judges — go to the winds as uttered. 
That economy and the want of it bore their ap- 
propriate fruits. Mr. Macaulay's name became fa- 
miliar in every household. Mr Choate's merits, if 
not his name, would have passed out of mind, but 
for the zeal of his friend and biographer, who illus- 

14 



210 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

trated his virtues, and collected mere fragments of 
his works. 

But, now that Mr. Trevelyan gives us the let- 
ters, diary, and journal of Macaulay, as Professor 
Brown had given us those of Choate — the same 
forms of literary labor, representing more truly 
than other forms the habits of thought, and modes 
of expression peculiar to each of them — the 
reader may consider their relative merits. After 
lingering over and seeking to compare their work, 
our conviction is that in the simplicity and un- 
studied grace of his letters, in the earnest purpose 
and profound study disclosed in his diary, in the 
descriptions, criticisms, and suggestions recorded 
in his Journal, in tone and spirit, in the use of 
clear, compact, nervous, beautiful, yet simple Eng- 
lish, Mr. Choate appears to greater advantage 
than Mr. Macaulay. 

Mr. Choate's suggestion, that one who would 
write well should write slowly, had respect to the 
example of some great authors — Sallust, Virgil, 
Tacitus — as well as to the instructions of Cicero 
and of Quintilian. The virtue of such delibera- 
tion was recognized by Mr. Macaulay. When the 
materials for his History had been collected and 
arranged, his task was to write two pages daily ; 
and, in one instance, after having been engaged 
nineteen days on thirty pages, he was not satisfied 



USE OF FOREIGN TERMS. 211 

with the character of his work. The habits of 
Burke, Bossuet, Gibbon, and others, in correcting 
their compositions, are well known. Macaulay 
bettered the instruction. He was constantly re- 
vising his work. Having stated in his diary the 
time by which the third volume of his History 
might be written — " rough-hewn " — he adds, 
" Of course the polishing and retouching will be 
an immense labor." Of that care and industry, 
great certainly, and worthy of commendation, Mr. 
Thackeray, with characteristic extravagance, said, 
" He reads twenty books to write a sentence ; he 
travels a hundred miles to make a line of descrip- 
tion." 

By his example, Mr. Macaulay has happily put 
in a protest against the free use, by English writ- 
ers, of words and phrases from other languages. 
With reasonable success, he resisted the tempta- 
tion to indulge in such quotations. That was no 
slight victory as, with his well-stored and active 
memory, such words and phrases, often laden with 
a delicacy and fragrance not to be retained in any 
translation, must have frequently occurred to him. 
Mr. Choate had not, in equal degree, that power 
of resistance. In pages of his Journal, and in 
some of his arguments, we do not find him using 
foreign words, nor need he ever have used them. 
But, when he did so, it was the well-accepted 



212 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

aphorism, the ripe fruit of ancient experience, to 
which he stood related as an heir, that he wished 
to appropriate. The maxim or precept pressing 
upon his mind had been so familiar that he was 
led to take it in its old attire, as an imperial hand 
might accept tribute in a foreign coin. But he 
applied freely, and in simple English, the teach- 
ings of the old masters. The foreign word or 
phrase, when used, was a mere adjunct, an ad- 
ditional rap of the hammer after the nail had 
been driven, — the argument complete without it, 
the terms luminous, the sense transparent. He 
was, therefore, always understood even by those 
who knew nothing of Latin or Greek. It may 
be inferred from the directness and ease with 
which he continually expressed in English the 
most subtile thoughts and distinctions that he 
never could have been conscious of anything 
like poverty in our language. It served him in 
a spirit of entire obedience. He illustrated its 
strength, contributed to its wealth and dignity. 
His pride in it would seem to have been intense, 
his faith in its mission unfaltering, his ideal of it 
akin to that perfection which Cicero may have 
had in view, when he extolled the discourse of an 
old philosopher as a river of flowing gold. Mr. 
Choate has left us some of the best specimens of 
modern English. But he had not, like Macaulay 



METHODS OF WORK. 213 

or Virgil, the leisure to give a day to the writing 
of two pages, or of two verses, or even to revise 
and polish much that he had written. Some of 
his best lectures and arguments were prepared in 
the short intervals of professional toil. The wise 
counsel, the profound deduction, the brilliant 
thought and illustration, the exceeding grace and 
beauty of expression, " skiey sentences, aerolites, 
which seem to have fallen out of Heaven," were 
conceived while the pen was doing its rapid work, 
or in the excitement of the moment when he was 
speaking. A friend found him in the night sit- 
ting up in bed, writing. 1 He could only thus make 
up for delay which other duties had imposed. He 
was preparing the eulogy of Daniel Webster, to 
be delivered at Dartmouth College. When, some 
days later, before an audience representing the 
highest culture known among us, he had set forth 
the life and character of Mr. Webster, according 
to his conception of them — the profound study 
and discernment, the long, patient, patriotic ser- 
vice, the great example, the loss " incapable of 
repair," the love and reverence due to his memory 
then and evermore, — the audience drawn into 
profound sympathy with the subject, strong men 
in tears, — Mr. Choate, as if the fervent thoughts 
that possessed him demanded more free utterance 

1 Edward Ellerton Pratt. 



214 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

from the heart, cast aside his notes, and gave his 
peroration without them. 

Some significant words as to the relation of our 
language to the Bible deserve attention. After a 
conversation with Lady Holland, in which she had 
condemned the use of such words as " constitu- 
ency," " talented," " gentlemanly," Mr. Macaulay 
says, " I did not tell her, though I might have 
done so, that a person who professes to be a critic 
in the delicacies of the English language ought to 
have the Bible at his fingers' ends." Speaking of 
the Bible in schools, Mr. Choate says, " I would 
have it read not only for its authoritative revela- 
tions and its commands and exactions, obligatory 
yesterday, to-day, and forever, but for its English, 
for its literature, for its pathos, for its dim im- 
agery, its sayings of consolation and wisdom and 
universal truth." 1 He read it daily. Something 
of the spirit of it pervades his speeches sugges- 
tively, giving tone and an air of authority to the 
argument. That is especially so in those speeches 
in which he illustrated the character of our Pil- 
grim Fathers, their faith and endurance, the bless- 
ings of peace, of education, and of the law. In 
his references to favorite authors, his admira- 
tion great, if not amounting to hero-worship, he 

1 See Dr. Spear's Religion and the State, as to the Bible in our 
public schools. 



PARADISE REGAINED. 215 

yet assigns them a subordinate place. Thus, in 
noting in his Journal his morning's study, he 
refers to Milton. " I read, besides my lessons, 
the temptation in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in 
the Greek ; and then that grand and grave poem 
which Milton has built upon those few and awful 
verses — 'Paradise Regained.' I recognize and 
profoundly venerate the vast poetical luminary 
i in this more pleasing light, shadowy.' Epic sub- 
limity the subject excludes ; the anxious and 
changeful interests of the drama are not there. 
It suggests an occasional recollection of the book 
of Job, but how far short of its pathos, its agen- 
cies, its voices of human sorrow and doubt and cu- 
riosity, and its occasional, unapproachable grand- 
eur ! Yet it is of the most sustained elegance of 
expression. It is strewn and burning with the 
pearl and gold of the richest and loftiest and best 
instructed of human imaginations." 

Mr. Choate had faith in the inspiration of the 
Scriptures and in the scheme of redemption. He 
had a profound reverence for " the foolishness of 
preaching." He attended faithfully, for years, 
the church of the Rev. Dr. Adams in Boston. On 
the hearing of the last case in which he appeared 
as counsel at New York, Mr. Choate was ill, and 
the court adjourned over from Friday morning to 
Monday, when he proceeded with his argument. 



216 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

But on the intervening Sunday, I met him at the 
old Brick Church ; where, though nervous and 
suffering, he listened devoutly to a plain sermon 
by the Rev. Gardiner Spring. If Mr. Macaulay 
had like faith, he had not like reverence. He re- 
garded ecclesiastical matters " exclusively from 
the standpoint of the state;" a sermon as an 
intellectual performance. If the discourse was 
learned and fine, it was well to be in church. 
He leaves a record of two occasions when he was 
there — the one on a day appointed for national 
humiliation and prayer — and he says, " Nothing 
could be more solemn and earnest than the as- 
pect of the congregation, which was numerous. 
The sermon was detestable ; ignorance, stupidity, 
bigotry. If the maxims of this fool," etc. On 
the other occasion, the preacher was dull, and 
Macaulay says, " I withdrew my attention and 
read the Epistle to the Romans. I was much 
struck by the eloquence and force of some pas- 
sages." " I know of few things finer than the end 
of the first chapter and the ' Who shall separate 
us from the love of Christ ? ' " We do not pause 
to inquire when and where he knew the finer 
things, however few, being in turn much struck 
by the deference he so loftily pays to " the elo- 
quence and force of some passages." We recall 
nothing so exquisitely complaisant in Hume or 



AN IRRITATING QUESTION. 217 

Gibbon, and confess that no such generous criti- 
cism could have been conceived or perpetrated by 
Rufus Choate. 

A sensible man always respects the delicacy of 
the situation in which he may be placed, quiets a 
difficulty, and smoothes over an impertinence. Mr. 
Choate was so fortunate in observing the "due 
temperance " that his life never rose to the dig- 
nity of a single quarrel ; yet his patience was often 
severely tried in the courts, in the Senate, and in 
popular assemblies. But it may be well to observe 
how easily Macaulay could get up trouble by evad- 
ing or answering a simple question. At a public 
meeting, an elector in the crowd asked what his 
religious creed was. Macaulay cried out, " Let 
that man stand up where I can see him." It was 
a Methodist preacher. They hoisted him up on a 
form, and Macaulay, inveighing against bigotry, 
poured out a torrent of reproaches, and finally 
declared, " Gentlemen, I am a Christian." The 
poor preacher, about to be roughly handled by 
the fellows near him, slid down and crept away. 
The crowd cheered, perhaps because of Macau- 
lay's virtuous indignation, perhaps because of the 
vital discovery that had been made. We think 
Mr. Choate would have answered such a question 
without heat or irritation. 

At an early day, Macaulay was admonished to 



218 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

improve his temper. Later, Disraeli said, " He 
must get rid of his rabidity." Sydney Smith told 
him that his " great danger was that of taking a 
tone of too much asperity and contempt in contro- 
versy." As we are contrasting him with one who 
never needed such advice, who never had a re- 
venge to gratify or an enemy to pursue, the flower 
and fruit of that rabidity, asj)erity, and contempt, 
as shown in Macaulay's treatment of others, de- 
serve notice. We do not pause to ask whether 
the studied denunciation of Mr. Croker or of Rob- 
ert Montgomery, running through a dozen pages 
or so, had or had not some justice to qualify the 
apparent malignity. All that could be allowed to 
pass as belonging to, even if not dignifying, criti- 
cism. But not until Mr. Trevelyan had unrolled 
the record for inspection, did we know that Ma- 
caulay could go so far beyond the office of the 
critic as to treasure up bitter personal animosities, 
and that, writing in quiet hours, he could illus- 
trate that evil temper by unbecoming words. He 
calls Croker, then in Parliament, a " varlet;'' and 
says, " I detest him more than cold boiled veal." 
We also learn that Montgomery, finding the ar- 
ticle denouncing him republished and hawked 
about, the bitter cup ever held to his lips, was in 
great distress, and wrote again and again to Ma- 
caulay and his publisher, asking " to be let out of 



A TRIVIAL SPITE. 219 

the pillory," and that Macaulay put on the record, 
" Never with my consent." While we turn with 
repugnance from much that he wrote of Lord 
Brougham, we quote a few words. Macaulay says 
of him, " He has outlived his power to injure." 
Again, " Strange fellow ! his powers gone ; his spite 
immortal; a dead nettle." The grounds of his 
hatred of that great man were trivial, such as most 
persons would have passed over in silence. We are 
told by Macaulay that Lord Brougham thought 
that the seat given to him in Parliament should 
have been given to another ; that Brougham pro- 
fessed not to have read the " Essays ; ,! had not 
complimented him on his speeches when others 
had done so ; and that he aspired to too much con- 
trol over the " Edinburgh Review." Thus Macau- 
lay states his grievances, distempered dreams, and 
rejoices over Brougham's supposed mental as well 
as political decline, although Brougham had been 
the friend of Macaulay's father, and had favored 
his projects. How much more graceful and be- 
coming if Macaulay had been silent, or had treated 
Brougham with something of the respect Choate 
always manifested for Daniel Webster ! 

In speaking of Rufus Choate, Mr. Charles G. 
Loring said, " He rarely permitted himself to in- 
dulge in personalities, and never in those of an of- 
fensive and degrading nature." Mr. Richard H. 



220 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Dana, Jr., asks, " Who ever heard from him an un- 
kind word ? ' : And Professor Brown says, " He 
never spoke ill of the absent, nor would suffer 
others to do so in his presence." We contrast 
with such concurrent testimony what Macaulay 
deliberately wrote of other members of Parlia- 
ment. In a letter to Ellis, as to the close vote on 
a reform bill, he says, " And the jaw of Peel fell ; 
and the face of Twiss was as the face of a damned 
soul ; and Herries looked like Judas taking his 
necktie off for the last operation." 

Since Lord Coke announced that two leaks 
would drown any ship, we have learned that the 
principle admits of extended application ; that a 
single flaw will spoil a mirror, too much alloy the 
largest coin in the realm, and that a spirit of rab- 
idity and asperity being cherished in the heart, 
other evil spirits will enter in and take possession. 
We must confess, however, that we always re- 
garded Macaulay gratefully until we began to read 
his letters, diary, and journal, and that from 
thenceforth we have felt great concern as to his 
taste, style, and manners. 

In a letter to his sister, Macaulay mentions his 
introduction to Lady Holland, and her gracious 
invitation to Holland House. In other letters, he 
refers to his visits there after this fashion : " I 
dined yesterday at Holland House ; all lords ex- 



AN UNGRATEFUL GUEST. 221 

cept myself." He met there many distinguished 
persons ; for the first time heard Talleyrand, then 
famous, talk, and tell stories. The reader of the 
" Life of Sydney Smith," by his daughter, will re- 
call his estimate of the honor conferred upon him 
when, young and poor, he was received into that 
society, and of the kindness shown him by Lord 
and Lady Holland, — a grateful and beautiful pic- 
ture. As the doors of Holland House were thrown 
wide open to Macaulay, and as he was treated by 
Lord and Lady Holland as a son might have been, 
that sovereign courtesy should have been suffi- 
cient to inspire in one fit to be introduced a grate- 
ful respect, a decent degree of reticence. But 
what record does Macaulay leave ? The little 
household flurries are depicted ; the unguarded 
chat and prattle of the most gracious hostess that 
ever smiled a welcome to her guests are given ; 
her freaks, fears, superstitions, lamentations, and 
"her tantrums" are described, even to the extent 
of saying that she was hysterical about Macaulay's 
going to India, and had to be soothed by Lord 
Holland. No zealous attorney was ever more 
faithful in getting up a bill of particulars. 

Macaulay's sorrow for the dead and dying dig- 
nifies a pathetic letter to his sister. Thus he 
writes : " Poor Scott is gone, and I cannot be 
sorry for it. A powerful mind in ruins is the 



222 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

most heart-breaking thing which it is possible 
to conceive. Ferdinand of Spain is gone, too; 
and I fear old Mr. Stephen is going fast. I am 
safe for Leeds. Poor Hyde Villiers is very ill." 

How considerate the transition from the want 
of hope for others to his own flushing hope in the 
coming election ! Through the dark shadows, the 
light breaks in so naturally, — " Don't fret, sister, 
I am safe for Leeds." 

Mr. Choate read with discrimination the authors 
of his clay. Mr. Trevelyan says, " Macaulay had 
a very slight acquaintance with the works of some 
among the best writers of his own generation." 
But his reading seems to have been incessant, 
fragmentary, and capricious. He says, " I walked 
the heath in glorious weather, and read ' The 
Mysteries of Paris.' Sue has quite put poor 
Plato's nose out of joint." Again, he says, 
" Read < Northanger Abbey ' ; worth all Dickens 
and Pliny together. Yet it was the work of a 
girl. She was certainly not more than twenty- 
six. Wonderful creature ! Finished Pliny. Cap- 
ital fellow, Trajan, and deserving of a better 
panegyric." Most scholars have been satisfied 
with the picture drawn of the Emperor. Choate 
commended Pliny as " one who seldom colored 
too highly." 

Mr. Choate was never severe as a critic ; his 



A SEVERE CRITIC. 223 

dissatisfaction was always expressed in becoming 
terms. Mr. Macaulay's criticisms, as we now have 
them, were often crude, mere freaks of fancy, 
rashly and rudely stated. Thus he says, " Looked 
in the ' Life of Hugh Blair,' — a stupid book, by 
a stupid man, about a stupid man." Blair was 
not a great man, but he was always, and espe- 
cially in his style, respectable. His first volume 
of " Sermons " was published on the advice of 
Doctor Johnson. Macaulay refers to two of Gib- 
bon's critics thus: "That stupid beast, Joseph 
Milner." " But Whitaker was as dirty a cur as 
I remember." This may excite surprise, as Ma- 
caulay remembered so many curs. He puts down 
some men as beasts, several as asses, others as 
curs. The association brings to mind what Cole- 
ridge said of Burke, in his public character, to 
wit, " That he found himself, as it were, in 
Noah's ark, with a very few men and a great 
many beasts." But neither of those critics was 
stupid. Mr. Choate thought well of Milner, and 
we turn poor Whitaker over to Mr. Charles But- 
ler, a lawyer, a great controversialist, one who 
always wrote as became a gentleman. He says, 
"Dr. Whitaker's criticism of his (Gibbon's) his- 
tory is rough, but powerful." 

We do not pause to illustrate Macaulay's ego- 
tism and vanity ; the proofs cropping out in many 



224 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

pages of his letters and diary would be burden- 
some. As compared with Macaulay's self-lauda- 
tions, — from the " My speech has set me in the 
front rank," on down to the " How white .poor 
Peel looked while I was speaking," and to the two 
damsels who, having paid their shilling to see the 
hippopotamus, abandoned the show to get a look 
at Macaulay, — Mr. Choate's record would seem to 
be poor indeed. Not a shade of egotism or vanity 
was ever imputed to him. Nor need we, after our 
quotations from Macaulay, enforce our conviction 
that his style, unlike the style of Mr. Choate, had 
caught no grace from Grecian studies, no strength 
from biblical reading. 

The spirit of grace and courtesy which indi- 
cates social and literary refinement in a man not 
morbidly selfish shines forth in his words, spoken 
or written, and in his enforced intercourse with 
decent strangers. Mr. Macaulay has given us 
some evidence of the amenity of his manners, 
when he was approached respectfully by persons 
wishing to do him honor. He says, " What odd 
things happen ! Two gentlemen, or at least two 
men in good coats and hats, overtook me as I was 
strolling through one of the meadows close by the 
river. One of them stared at me, touched his hat, 
and said, ' Mr. Macaulay, I believe.' I admitted 
the truth of the imputation. So the fellow went 



USES OF BIOGRAPHY. 225 

on, ' I suppose, sir,' ' etc. But lie soon got rid 
of the fellow. Macaulay was at Rome, and says, 
" Yesterday as I was looking at some superb por- 
traits by Raphael and Titian, a Yankee ^clergyman 
introduced himself to me ; told me that he had 
heard who I was ; that he begged to thank me for 
my writings in the name of his countrymen. I 
bowed, thanked him, and stole away, leaving the 
Grand Duke's picture a great deal sooner than I 
had intended." In contrast with these exhibi- 
tions, the statement of the Rev. Dr. Adams may 
be cited. He said that Mr. Choate " Treated 
every man as though he were a gentleman j and 
he treated every gentleman almost as he would 
a lady." 

The poverty which often attaches to biogra- 
phies qualifies, in some aspects, these works of 
Professor Brown and Mr. Trevelyan. This was 
unavoidable. It is quite apparent that no one 
could fathom the mystery of Mr. Choate's genius, 
or state its precise character. His friends could 
only wonder and admire, — seek to measure its 
power in the intellectual performance. Mr. Ma- 
caulay had, from first to last, been so silent in 
respect to a matter of the most vital concern, as 
to the life that now is and that which is to come, 
that his nearest friends could make no discovery, 
his biographer no revelation. 

15 



226 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

But no one who had considered Macaulay in 
his works previously published, and who now con- 
siders him in his other writings, will doubt the 
uses of biography. If one who is supposed to 
give tone to society has an artificial voice full of 
melody when abroad, a natural voice full of dis- 
cord when at home, that should be known. If an 
author, who has beguiled us into a high estimate 
of his merits, appeared as a poet in prose as well 
as in verse, his words and sentences polished and 
full of measured sweetness, — "a burnished fly in 
the pride of May," — was, in reality, weak in tone 
and sentiment, bitter and unforgiving, ungrateful 
for social service and distinction, often rude in 
manners, and as a writer, and in his natural, 
every-day style, was diffuse and ungraceful, if 
not rough, all that should also be known. If such 
a character appears in its true light when con- 
trasted with one whose life, open as the day, was 
a perpetual benediction, full of beneficent influ- 
ences, inciting to everything that was just, loyal, 
noble in sentiment, beautiful in speech, uniform 
and exemplary in conduct, we may well be thank- 
ful that biographies could be written. 



LETTERS. 



LETTER FROM JOSHUA M. VAN COTT. 



Mr. Joshua M. Van Cott, having, in casual 
conversation, mentioned an interesting occasion 
when he heard Mr. Choate, had the kindness, at 
my request, to send me this note — he calls it " a 
scrap." 

In December, 1843, the New Englanders in 
New York celebrated the anniversary of the land- 
ing of the Pilgrims, Rufus Choate being the ora- 
tor, and his theme, " The Age of the Pilgrims, 
our Heroic Period." 1 The oration was delivered 
in the old Broadway Tabernacle, then the largest 
auditorium in the city. The great building was 
crowded to hear the famous speaker. Mr. Web- 
ster and other distinguished public men were on 
the platform. Mr. Choate was then in his prime, 
and his presence was hardly less striking than 
that of the great expounder. He was tall, thin ; 
his complexion a rich olive ; his eyes large, liq- 

1 See the oration in vol. i. of Brown's Life and Writings of 
Choate. 



230 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

uid, glowing ; the face oriental, rather than that 
of an American, and generally rather sad than 
eager and passionate. His voice was a rich bari- 
tone, sonorous, majestic, finely modulated, and in- 
imitable in the expression of pathos. He philo- 
sophically developed the rise of Puritanism and 
the causes of the Pilgrim emigration, and came 
down to the Mayflower, to Miles and Rose Stan- 
dish, to the landing at Plymouth, the severity of 
the winter, the famine and the sickness, and the 
many deaths — fifty out of a hundred, including 
that of the beautiful Rose Standish. Pausing, 
with a sad, far-off look in his eyes, as if the vision 
had suddenly risen upon his memory, and with a 
voice inexpressibly sweet and pathetic, he said, 
" In a late visit to Plymouth I sought the spot 
where these earlier dead were buried. It was on 
a bank somewhat elevated, near, fronting and 
looking upon the waves, — symbol of what life 
had been to them, — ascending inland behind and 
above the Rock, symbol also of that Rock of Ages 
on which the dying had rested in that final hour." 
I have never seen an audience more moved. 
The orator had skillfully led up to this passage, 
and then, with a voice surcharged with emotion, he 
thus symbolized the stormy and tumultuous life, 
the sudden and sad end, and the heroic faith with 
which, resting upon the Rock of .Ages, they had 



A SYMPATHETIC AUDIENCE. 231 

Lain down on the shore of the Eternal Sea. As 
Choate approached the climax, Webster's emotion 
became uncontrollable ; the great eyes were filled 
with tears, the great frame shook ; he bowed his 
head to conceal his face in his hat, and I almost 
seemed to hear his sob. The audience was flooded 
with tears, a handkerchief at every face, and sighs 
and sobs soughed through the house like the wind 
in the tree-tops. The genius of the orator had 
transferred us to the spot, and we saw the rocky 
shore, and, with him, mourned the early dead. 

We have had but one Ruf us Choate ; alas ! we 
shall never have another. We have had powerful 
dialecticians, such as Hamilton and Pinkney and 
Webster; we have had great stump speakers, 
such as Senator Corwin and Sergeant S. Prentiss, 
but none who could sway the soul like the great 
lawyer, scholar, statesman, and orator of New 
England. 

" So on the tip of his subduing tongue 
All kinds of arguments and question deep, 
All replication prompt, and reason strong 
For his advantage still did wake and sleep: 
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep, 
He had the dialect and different skill, 
Catching all passions in his craft of will." 

Shakespeare's Lover's Complaint. 



LETTER FROM REV. A. P. PUTNAM, D. D. 



When the Rev. A. P. Putnam, D. D., was about 
leaving Brooklyn for his summer vacation, know- 
ing that he was a native of Danvers, and that he 
proposed to remain for some time in the vicinity 
of Mr. Choate's early dwelling-place, I asked him 
to keep in mind the subject to which these arti- 
cles have been devoted, and to favor me, at his 
convenience, with such impressions as occurred to 
him and such facts as he might learn. I grate- 
fully acknowledge the kindly and generous spirit 
in which he has complied with the request. 

My Dear Judge, — I beg you to accept my 
thanks for the copies which you have kindly sent 
of " The Albany Law Journal," containing your 
exceedingly interesting and timely articles illus- 
trative of the life and character of Mr. Choate. 
I rejoice that your efforts to rescue so much valu- 
able testimony to his worth and so many facts 
concerning his habits and history, before those 
who from their personal friendship or acquaint- 



VISTT TO MR. CHOATE. 233 

ance are best qualified to furnish such material 
have quite passed off the stage, are so widely and 
gratefully appreciated. Though a native of Dan- 
vers, where he began the practice of the law, yet, 
while he was there, I was too young to see and 
hear him as many of the older residents were 
wont to do. But I recall how frequently he was 
a favorite theme of conversation with my father, 
who was associated with him not a little in politi- 
cal and town affairs, and who had the greatest re- 
spect and admiration for his talents and virtues. 
After he removed from Salem to Boston, the 
charm of the man and of his eloquence lingered 
long in the minds of all classes of people in Essex 
County, and stories of his early successes at the 
bar and predictions of his brilliant future contin- 
ued to be rife in and about the scenes of his open- 
ing professional career. I well remember how, on 
one occasion, when, thirty or forty years ago, he 
came from Boston to Danvers to try a case of 
local interest, a most eager desire to see him was 
manifested by the villagers, who assembled about 
the hotel to witness his arrival, and then crowded 
into the hall to listen to his argument. I was 
myself but a boy in the thronged apartment, and 
have no very distinct recollection of what he said 
at the time ; but I shall never lose the impression 
which his look, manner, and voice made upon me. 



234 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

In form, feature, and expression lie was then the 
perfection of manly beauty, while he had already 
won an enviable fame as an orator and advocate. 
Long afterward it fell to me to go to the city to 
eno-ao-e him for a lecture. I found him at home, 
seated in a soft, comfortable arm-chair, and suffer- 
ing severely from neuralgic pains in his head. 
The brief interview is precious to me in memory, 
as well because it was the only opportunity that 
was ever permitted me to exchange words with 
him as because he seized the moment to pay a 
tender tribute of esteem and affection to one who 
had recently died, and who was yet dearer to me 
than to himself. I always, however, sought to 
hear him whenever it was announced that he 
would speak in public, and whenever it was pos- 
sible for me to be present. Some of his later po- 
litical speeches found no response in one of my 
anti-slavery convictions ; but there was magic in 
his spell, and there was also truth in the man. 
For, however questionable his reasoning may now 
seem, in view especially of all that has since oc- 
curred in our national history, who can for a mo- 
ment doubt that a soul so sensitive and conserva- 
tive, yet so patriotic and unselfish as his, must 
have been deeply in earnest, as he 'foresaw and 
dreaded the conflict that was near at hand, and 
did all that he could to stay the storm. One of 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 235 

the ablest utterances I ever heard from him was, 
I think, his speech on the judiciary question, July 
14, 1853, in the Massachusetts convention, held 
during that year in Boston, for revising and 
amending the state Constitution. It was an ex- 
ceedingly powerful argument, and it was as capti- 
vating in style and delivery as it was sound and 
irresistible in its logic. The hall of the House of 
Representatives was crowded in floor and in gal- 
lery, and the attention of all was riveted to the 
end. The peroration was a splendid tribute to 
the people of Massachusetts, and ended thus: 
" They have nothing timorous in them as touch- 
ing the largest liberty. They rather like the 
exhilaration of crowding sail on the noble old 
ship, and giving her to scud away before a four- 
teen-knot breeze; but they know, too, if the 
storm comes on to blow and the masts go over- 
board, and the gun deck is rolled under water, 
and the lee shore, edged with foam, thunders un- 
der her stern, that the sheet anchor and best 
bower then are everything! Give them good 
ground tackle, and they will carry her round the 
world and back again till there shall be no more 
sea." The effect of such a speech, with these 
concluding words, may be better imagined than 
described. Immediately as he finished it, he put 
on his wraps, even though it was summer, and 



236 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

like some mysterious personage walked out of the 
assembly, followed by the gaze of the impressed 
and admiring multitude. 

His judgment respecting one of the notable 
men of the convention is interesting. The towns 
and cities of the Commonwealth seemed to have 
vied with each other in electing as members their 
leading statesmen, politicians, lawyers, jurists, 
scholars, authors, editors, teachers, reformers, 
clergymen, merchants, or farmers. It was a very 
remarkable body of men, and among them were 
Eufus Choate, Charles Sumner, R. H. Dana, Jr., 
Marcus Morton, Otis P. Lord, Henry Wilson, 
Charles W. Upham, Benjamin F. Butler, William 
Appleton, J. Thomas Stevenson, John C. Gray, 
Sidney Bartlett, N. P. Banks, Anson Burlingame, 
Charles Allen, Samuel A. Elliot, George N. Briggs, 
George S. Boutwell, Henry L. Dawes, F. B. Crown- 
inshield, George S. Hillard, and many others of 
state, if not of national, reputation. But Mr. 
Choate told a friend of mine, who was a member 
from Pioxbury, that the man who was the ruling 
genius of the body, most powerfully controlling 
its deliberations and shaping its proceedings, hav- 
ing the most thorough knowledge of all his asso- 
ciates, and most fertile of methods in adapting 
means to ends, always carrying the whole busi- 
ness of the Convention in his mind, ever watching 



HIS BIRTHPLACE. 237 

his opportunity, and never failing to accomplish 
his purpose, was Henry Wilson. Such testimony 
from such authority, with regard to the " Natick 
Cobbler," giving him so proud a preeminence 
amidst the assembled wisdom of the State, was a 
tribute indeed. 

While spending my summer vacation at Bev- 
erly a few months ago, I took the cars one day 
for Essex, in order to visit the spot where the 
great advocate was born. On reaching the vil- 
lage, I went with a friend to the head of the 
creek where the ship-builders launch their barks, 
and there joining two of Mr. Choate's nephews, 
Rufus and William, we rowed together clown the 
winding stream for about two miles, until we 
came to the small bay whose waters inclose the 
island on which he first saw the light, and which 
is itself shut in by the enfolding arms of the white 
sand beaches that project from, or lie along, the 
shore. The land on either side, as we proceeded 
on our way, was mostly level and marshy, but 
about midway, on our left, it rose into a gentle 
swell, and was largely shaded by a noble growth 
of walnut trees, presenting a lovely site for a sum- 
mer residence. It was long a cherished dream of 
Mr. Choate's — to which his biographer makes a 
passing allusion — that he should one day build 
himself a house here, where he might each year 



238 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

come and rest a while from his arduous profes- 
sional toils, and refresh himself with the cool sea 
airs and the old familiar scenes of his infancy and 
youth. Yet it was too lonely a spot for the 
younger members of the family, and the project 
was never realized. Also at the left, and within 
the little bay, is what is known as Dean's Island. 
It is a small extent of land, covered with trees 
and entirely uninhabited. One could easily be- 
lieve concerning it that it was never the abode 
of any living creature. Mr. Choate was one day 
gliding past it, in company with the nephew who 
bears his name, and was hearing the latter tell 
how he had visited the silent and unfrequented 
spot. It was at a time when the cholera was 
raging in various parts of the country, and was 
the subject of general and anxious remark, and 
the uncle, affecting a great horror of the scourge, 
asked with a touch of his subdued yet delicious 
humor, "And Rufus, did you find any cholera 
there ? " 

The island on which Mr. Choate was born is 
just opposite the mouth of the creek, and is sep- 
arated from the mainland by a wide channel of 
water at high tide, but may with some difficulty 
be reached with a horse and wagon when the tide 
is out. Its surface consists of about three hundred 
acres, and the whole rises into a well-rounded em- 



C HO ATE ISLAND. 239 

inence, whose summit must be about two hundred 
feet above the level of the water. Its bald, naked 
aspect is quite unrelieved by trees or vegetation, 
except as the more southern slopes are brought 
under some degree of cultivation by those who oc- 
cupy the three farm-houses situated there. In one 
of these houses Rufus Choate was born ; but when 
he was only six months old the family removed to 
the village where he grew up to early manhood. 
The house is painted white, and has latterly re- 
ceived a piazza on the front, which faces the south. 
The larger part of the island has been in the pos- 
session of the Choate family for seven genera- 
tions. Its proper name is " Choate Island," a 
name to which the facts of its original and contin- 
ued proprietorship well entitled it, and which is 
actually given it in the maps of the Coast Survey. 
A considerable portion of the land is now owned 
by the nephew, Rufus. His illustrious uncle al- 
ways turned to his birthplace with fond affection, 
and was wont to go thither in the summer for a 
time, taking with him some books and friends. It 
is reasonable to suppose that the spot and its sur- 
roundings must have exercised more influence 
upon his mind and character than those who have 
written about him have been wont to trace. Who 
can tell how much of the marvelous beauty of his 
lost lecture on " The Romance of the Sea," or 



240 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

how much of the pathos or witchery or eloquence 
of many another of his productions must have 
been due to what, in youth, as in maturer life, he 
thus often saw and felt there at his " native isle." 
From the brow of the hill, he could discern, in 
clear weather, far away at the north, the moun- 
tains of Maine and New Hampshire. Beyond the 
marshes and the village that lay immediately at 
the west, he could see not a few of the towns and 
villages of Essex County, numbering many a glit- 
tering spire, and delight himself with a richly di- 
versified and most pleasing landscape. Just at 
the southeast, the great cape extended its lofty 
ridge far out toward the sea, while close along the 
nearer shore lay various larger or smaller islands 
or sand-bars, with their white cliffs and shining 
levels, washed on the one side by the waters of 
several rivers that poured down their currents 
from the interior, and on the other by the waves 
of the ocean, whose vast expanse, broadening to 
the view, specked with sails, and fascinating with 
its ever-changing hues, completed the circuit of the 
range. In all this scenery there was a breadth 
and a variety, a certain lonely grandeur and per- 
petual revelation, which, for one who was such an 
ardent lover of nature, and who was so susceptible 
and imaginative as Mr. Choate, could not have 
failed to possess an indescribable charm. 



EARLY LETTERS. 241 

We drank at the well from the " old oaken 
bucket, the iron-bound bucket," whose water was 
as cool and reviving as that which at Salisbury, 
N. H., once evoked from Mr. Webster, in his old 
age, the fervent ejaculation, " This water of my 
father's well, it is sweeter than the nectar of the 
gods." And then we entered the house, saw the 
room where the infant Rufus made his advent, and 
the other apartments which have been so familiar 
to successive generations of his name, listening to 
many an interesting story of the lives of those who 
have there had their home. A fresh breeze had 
sprung up as we returned to our boat, and we 
were borne gayly up the stream down which we 
had been rowed. We took tea with the family of 
the late David Choate, at the homestead to which 
Rufus was taken when an infant, and which was 
from that time his abode until he went forth into 
the wider world. It was pleasant to talk with 
such of the nearest relatives of the departed as are 
still living in Essex, hear them speak of one of 
whom they are so justly proud, and see the memo- 
rials and keepsakes that tell of their love for him. 

Some of the early letters of Mr. Choate have 
come to light since Professor Brown published his 
" Memoirs." These, in view of the fact that they 
were written, chiefly, in his school-day life, and in 
consideration of the paucity of such materials as 

16 



242 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CEO ATE. 

are illustrative of his history, may be regarded as 
of some interest and importance, though there is 
nothing in them of very remarkable significance. 
I was permitted to take them for a time and make 
such use of them as I might see fit. A few ex- 
tracts from them may prove welcome to the read- 
ers of these pages as showing more fully his hab- 
its of study, his tastes and predilections, and his 
peculiarities of mind in that formative period of 
his life. It is possible that one or more of these 
letters may have been partly given in some form 
to the public before, but I am not aware that such 
has really been the case, and I am told by his 
nephew that, as a whole, they are quite unknown 
beyond the immediate circle of his friends or rela- 
tives. Some of them abound in fun and absurd- 
ities. Others are thoughtful and sad. Nearly all 
of them indicate an original cast of mind, an ear- 
nest love of knowledge, and a strong determina- 
tion to conquer, with a tender and ardent affection 
for his home and the dear ones who were there. 

The first is dated June 17, 1815, and was 
written to his brother David from Hampton, N. 
H. ? where he was fitting himself at an academy 
to enter college. He refers at the outset to a 
• charge which he had received from the " com- 
bined powers," or " the folks," at home, that he 
should write immediately "a long, solid letter." 



EARLY LETTERS. 243 

Then he proceeded thus: "Did you ever see a 
definition of the word solid f If not, I will give 
you one from Bailey's Dictionary. ' Solid (F. 
solide, L. solidus), massive, hard, firm, strong, 
real, substantial, sound, lasting.' How," he asks, 
" can I build a ' solid letter,' then, with such ma- 
terials as these ; viz., thin paper, no bigger than 
a four and a half penny, shallow brain, and no life 
at all ? " Instantly he dashes off into a strain of 
bombast, interspersed with quotations about the 
storms and desolations of winter and the sunshine 
and loveliness of the season that had succeeded, 
suggesting that it may all serve to " fill up " what 
he evidently means as a sort of burlesque of the 
thing his family have asked for. Toward the end 
of the letter, he writes that he has begun the 
" De Oratore," and hopes soon to be " fit." But 
he depends much on spending a month or two 
at home " before the Dartmouth ' Scrape ' comes 
on." He is now in the sixteenth year of his age. 

Then there is another of these letters from 
Hampton, dated July 20th of the same year, 
and addressed also to his brother David, in which 
he debates the question, in lawyer-like fashion, 
whether he shall go home before the end of the 
quarter, the disputants being " Bufus & /." The 
reasons for his going prevail. " The die is cast." 
He says, " I want some time for relaxation and 



244 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

delivery from purgatory previous to besetting 
Dartmouth College." 

He entered college in the summer of 1815, and 
in a letter written from Hanover and dated De- 
cember 5, 1815, he gives an account of his ex- 
penses, which certainly were small enough, and 
arranges with his brother for a visit home early 
in January. He adds, " Only about ten or twelve 
of my class remain. The rest have taken schools. 
How thankful ought I to be that I am not obliged 
to resort to this for assistance. We who remain 
have a chance to improve in the languages par- 
ticularly." 

Early in the following March he had returned 
to Dartmouth, and he writes to David, " Should I 
have my health, my acquirements ought to be 
great. Whether the measles are hanging about 
me or not is uncertain. I feel rather unwell, but 
a few days will decide. Respecting the affairs of 
the college, everything is at present in dread un- 
certainty. A storm seems to be gathering, the 
sky lowers, and ere long may burst on the present 
government of the college. What the event may 
be time will discover. If the State (and there is 
no doubt of it) be Democratic, a revolution will 
take place. Probably President Brown will be 
dismissed. In that case the college will fall. 
However, say nothing — all may yet be well, and 



AT DARTMOUTH. 245 

if not, we are not to blame." . . . " The class is 
ambitious; and to be among the first, in one 
which is pronounced the best in college, will be 
an arduous undertaking. Good health will be ab- 
solutely necessary for a candidate." 

" These hints about health may make you un- 
easy, but you must not mind it. I sincerely hope 
to be able to study hard, but shall never injure 
myself in that way. I suppose Washington 1 is 
getting through with the "Reader." He must 
attend closely to Latin and Greek. Two years 
would make a thorough scholar out of anything, 
and if this college should fail, the more he must 
study to enter at Cambridge." He says he has 
paid Mrs. D. for his board, has " discharged all 
debts " and has " some left ; " but as certain nec- 
essary expenses will soon absorb what little money 
remains to him, he half sportively adds, " I don't 
know what more to write, but suppose in about a 
month you send me a little money." And again, 
' I will now close, requesting you to write imme- 
diately and pay the postage." 

On November 3, 1816, he again writes from 
Hanover to David, who had evidently been very 
sick, "My dear brother, my feelings, on receiv- 
ing another letter from you, I shall not pretend or 

1 A younger brother who was born January 17, 1803, and died 
during his senior year at college. 



246 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

attempt to describe. You can conceive with what 
anxiety I was waiting news from home and the 
joy I must have felt in recognizing your well- 
known hand — the hand indeed of one, as you 
observe, ' almost literally raised from the dead.' 
How grateful ought we both to feel. And, if I 
know anything of myself, I do feel so. These 
gloomy forebodings that distracted my waking 
hours, and the dreams that haunted my sleep 
have now left me, and I can think of home with- 
out its appearing dreary and melancholy ; but I 
will only add, my heart's desire is that the cure 
may be perfected. Kespecting my own situation, 
I would tell you that it is in the highest degree 
pleasant. My room is good, and room-mate agree- 
able, and our fellow students in the house, seven 
in number, mostly seniors, friendly and familiar. 
Compared with last term, my eyes are well, 
though I do not attempt studying evenings, this 
circumstance rendering application in the day- 
time necessary. I have too much neglected exer- 
cise, and my head suffers for it. Since convers- 
ing, however, with Dr. Mussey, I have altered my 
habits and regularly exercise once a day. The 
instruction we enjoy is most excellent. President 
Brown hears us in Horace, and Professor ShurtlefE 
in Algebra ; and it is our own fault if we do not 
make suitable advances. By abridging hours of 



LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE. 247 

recreation, I have made myself master of the 
French grammar, and read, without a translation, 
one or two pages in the original of Telemachus as 
an exercise every morning. We have a task as- 
signed the class, of rather a singular nature, and 
such a one as will with difficulty be well per- 
formed — it is the rendering into English poetry 
one of the Odes of Horace, and this, with two or 
three other exercises which fall upon us, will I 
fear oblige me to hurt my eyes by application in 
the evening. I forgot to observe, when speaking 
of instruction, that Professor Adams corrects our 
compositions." 

Yet again, he writes from Hanover to David, 
under date of December 16, 1816, " I have been 
unavoidably prevented, till this moment, from 
answering your last, and expressing my joy at its 
contents. You will be sorry to hear what I have 
to tell you respecting affairs of the college. In- 
telligence has just reached us, that another act 
has passed both branches of the Legislature, and 
become a law, authorizing nine of the new trus- 
tees only to do business, — a number which, it is 
supposed, can very easily at any time be assembled. 
That this body will convene immediately, perhaps 
before the end of the term, and remove the whole 
of the present government of the college, and 
supply their places with men of their own party, 



248 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

is what the best amongst us confidently expect. 
The situation of the institution is, you perceive, 
critical in the extreme ; i Consternation turns 
the good man pale.' You may judge better of 
the singular state of the college, and of the con- 
fusion which prevails, from the following circum- 
stance. It is customary for the sophomore class 
to take on itself the business of getting the cata- 
logue of officers and students annually printed. 
It was, as usual, done by my class this fall, with 
the introduction, if I may so express it, ' Cata- 
logue of the Officers and Students of Dartmouth 
College.' The few Democrats and fellows of ' the 
baser sort ' amongst us immediately employed our 
Hanover Democratic printer to strike off an edi- 
tion in this form : ' Catalogue of the Officers and 
Students of Dartmouth University, together with 
the Trustees (old and new) and Overseers of the 
same ! ' So much for affairs of college. ... I 
have been exceedingly troubled with headache, 
and my eyes have become somewhat weak. I, 
therefore, look with impatience for the close of 
the term. I would, however, observe that, if my 
health is continued, I shall employ the coming 
vacation in diligent and profitable study ; and, 
excepting the Londonderry visit, which I heartily 
dread, I shall shut myself up. I have secured 
' Smith's Botany ' and a ' Telemaque ' of Dr. 



s 



A TEACHER AT WASHINGTON. 249 

Mussey, to which my attention will this winter 
be devoted." 

The last of these letters which I have in hand 
was written to Mr. Choate's sister Hannah, while 
he was studying law under Mr. Wirt at Washing- 
ton, and is elated September 29, 1821. It begins 
thus : " We sent you such a storm of letters two 
or three weeks since that somehow we hardly 
thought to be turned off with but one in answer, 
however full and excellent it might be, and so 
have waited and waited, unreasonably, you will 
say, in daily expectation of another or two. But 
I have taken hold at last, and a letter you shall 
have, — with nothing in it though, but very much 
love to you all, very much joy at David's so grati- 
fying recovery, and the word ' all 's well? " A 
little farther on he writes, " M. and E. went to 
Mount Vernon yesterday, and have brought back 
leaves, acorns, etc., plucked from the grave that 
hallows that place and makes it a spot so dear to 
the heart of every American. Sister S. and I 
hope to go down next Saturday." Besides his 
regular study of the law, he tells us that he is 
" engaged every other day in the week, three 
hours, in a school of young ladies, as &portant, — 
all for cash, of which the Doctor does not manage 
to have any. very great abundance, or for which 
I do not choose to ask him." He continues, " I 



250 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CUOATE. 

have some trifling debts which it is my determina- 
tion you at home never shall pay ; and, seriously 
as I regret the inroad on my hours of study, I 
cheerfully resign from 11 to 2. You can hardly 
imagine how much I long to go back to you, and 
look around once more on our family circle, and 
on the hills, dales, and waters of our much-loved 
birthplace. Sometimes I almost determine to re- 
turn this fall, but then what shall I do for money, 
and how shall I dispose of my professional studies ? 
So, on the whole, I must stand by, I think, till 
June, 1822. In the mean time, as soon at least 
as the session begins, we must contrive to hear 
from each other of tener, and when D., who I hope 
is nearly well enough already, has so recovered as 
to write, once a week must be the word. I like 
this city very little, and hope and believe I never 
shall make up my mind to stay here for life. That 
question as to the place of my future residence 
begins at last to be a very serious one, and I think 
of it daily and nightly. Still there are more than 
two years to me yet before I need decide, and all 
I ought to wish to do is to improve them to the 
very utmost." Again, as often in the course of 
these letters, his fond affection for his brother 
David finds its wonted expression. " You don't 
know how it delights me to hear of D.'s recovery, 
and how we want to see it under his own hand 
and seal." 



HIS HANDWRITING. 251 

This David, who died about five years a^o at 
the age of seventy-six, was, I scarcely need add, 
a man of much prominence and great usefulness. 
He possessed, in no small degree, many of the 
extraordinary natural gifts that distinguished his 
more celebrated brother j and, though he had had 
less favorable opportunities for early culture, he 
nobly justified the bright hopes that clustered 
about his promising youth by the solid and lasting 
service which he rendered, through all his man- 
hood, in the interests of education, law, and re- 
ligion. 

Among several scraps which I have in Mr. 
Choate's handwriting, is a letter which he wrote 
from Washington, when he was no longer a law 
student there, but about twelve years later, Feb- 
ruary 4, 1833, while he was a member of Con- 
gress. A short extract affords us a glimpse of 
what some of tlus national representatives were 
thinking about and doing. " Things stand pretty 
dubiously yet. However, the Union is well enough. 
The tariff we may save by a bargain." The last 
law case which Mr. Choate was ever engaged in 
has been referred to in a previous communication. 
A brief, written at the time with his own hand, is 
also in my possession, and is a curiosity in its way. 

Its chirography makes quite credible the story, 

which, however, comes to me from very good au- 



252 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

thority, — that a now deceased member of the 
Middlesex bar once received from him a letter 
respecting a suit in which the two were associated ; 
and, being nnable to read it, or to find any one 
else who could do so, he took it back to the writer, 
who was actually unable to decipher its strange 
characters himself. And were the latter to re- 
appear amongst us, after this lapse of years, I 
fear he would be equally unsuccessful in making 
out the brief I have mentioned. 

I have often heard Massachusetts lawyers speak 
of the strong prejudice which Mr. Choate soon en- 
countered from the older and more conspicuous 
members of the profession after his advent at the 
Boston bar. The way he had of gaining victories 
by his brilliant style, his captivating eloquence, 
his wonderful power over juries, and his new and 
novel methods of procedure, was deemed an im- 
pertinent departure from the long-established rule 
and routine. Few could understand his tactics, 
and more than a few persistently disparaged his 
talents and attainments, ridiculed his efforts and 
peculiarities, and sought to annoy and perplex 
him in court by unusual rudeness. On one occa- 
sion, when he had borne patiently many an un- 
friendly interruption and bitter taunt, some one 
who was near asked him why he endured such 
treatment, and why he did not retort. " I shall 



AN UNSELFISH MIND. 253 

retort," he said, " by getting the case." And he 
got it. 

Others fitted for the task have already, perhaps, 
given us a satisfactory analysis of Mr. Choate's 
mind and character. It is not for me to attempt 
it, and my letter is even now too long. But I 
cannot forbear adding a word about what has al- 
ways seemed to me one of the very finest of his 
traits. During my summer sojourn at Beverly, I 
was a near neighbor of the venerable Dr. Boyclen, 
whose testimony, as that of the only surviving 
college classmate of the great lawyer, you gave to 
the public in connection with your last article. In 
several interviews I had with him, he dwelt much 
upon the many rare virtues and excellences of his 
distinguished and life-long friend, and touched 
particularly upon his generous appreciation of 
whatever was good in others, and his absolute 
freedom from all envy and jealousy. Rufus 
Choate always wished and aimed to excel, but he 
was glad to see his companions and competitors 
excel also, and was ever ready to help them in 
their struggles and toils. He coveted no preemi- 
nence that must be purchased at the cost of those 
who were striving with him for fame and glory. 
He had no habit of disparaging his associates or 
rivals at school, at the bar, in legislative hall, or 
in the political arena. I can think of only one in- 



254 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

stance by way of exception. When Charles Fran- 
cis Adams, during the early years of the Free Soil 
movement, was pointing the people to the one 
straight path of duty and safety, Mr. Choate, 
whose honest views and sympathies and actions 
took a very different direction, indulged in the 
sarcasm of referring to John Quincy Adams as the 
" last of the Adamses." He did not live to see, to 
the full extent, how unfortunate was the word. 
For, when the awful conflict came which no ora- 
torical gifts or skillful compromises could avert, 
and the peerless magician of the courts and of 
popular assemblies had himself forever quit the 
stage, it was that same son of the " old man elo- 
quent " who, through long and perilous years, 
rendered his country a service abroad which his- 
tory will claim as scarcely inferior, in measure 
and value, to any that was performed by the 
wisest and best of our statesmen at home. 

Yours, very truly, 

A. P. PUTNAM. 



LETTER FROM HON. ENOCH L. FANCHER. 



The following was received from the Hon. 
Enoch L. Fancher : — 

MR. CHOATE AND THE METHODIST CHURCH CASE. 

One of the most important cases of my early 
practice was the so-called Methodist Church case. 
It was brought by Henry M. Bascom and others, 
as commissioners and representatives of the M. E. 
Church South, against the commissioners of the 
M. E. Church and the agents of its Book Concern 
in the city of New York. 

The suit was tried at New York, in the United 
States Circuit Court, before Judges Nelson and 
Betts, in May, 1851. 

Previous to the trial, I went to Boston to en- 
gage Mr. Choate as counsel for the defendants, 
and to acquaint him with the facts and questions 
involved in the case. After a brief interview at 
his office, an appointment was made by Mr. 
Choate, according to which the Rev. Dr. George 
Peck, one of the defendants, and myself were to 



256 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

meet him at his residence at four o'clock in the 
afternoon. 

Dr. Peck and myself were punctual to the en- 
o-ag-ement, and Mr. Choate received us in his li- 
brary, which comprises the entire second story of 
his residence, shelved to the ceiling, with trans- 
verse cases, all filled with books, through which 
you wound as in a labyrinth. There were all the 
Greek authors, most of the Latin, a large collec- 
tion of law books, and a well-selected collection of 
miscellaneous works of every description. 

In one of the passages between the cases stood 
a high desk, at which Mr. Choate stationed him- 
self, drawing his hand and arm, as he wrote, as 
high as the shoulder. On a lounge, near by, my 
companion and myself were seated, and from four 
till ten o'clock, deducting an interval of about 
thirty minutes for tea, we were plied with ques- 
tions from Mr. Choate, while he scrawled in quaint 
hieroglyphics what we supposed he intended as 
answers to the queries propounded. His eye di- 
lated, his voice grew tremulous, his lips quivered, 
and his great frame seemed to shake with the 
thoughts whose symbols were so strangely re- 
corded. He would at times cry out, " Stop there," 
holding up his left hand till he had written what 
he desired ; then, dropping the hand, would say in 
tones as musical as a flute, " Go right on, give me 



THE METHODIST CHURCH CASE. 257 

all of that view." Occasionally pausing, he would 
add, " This is the greatest case I ever studied ; I 
want you to leave with me every scrap of brief 
you have made." I left him with no doubt that 
he fully understood the whole case, and had en- 
listed in it strange enthusiasm. 

Subsequently he visited me at my residence in 
New York, when he reviewed, with masterly abil- 
ity, the general features of the great controversy 
between the Church South and the M. E. Church ; 
and asked further questions concerning the case, 
which seemed to arouse his ardent energies. 

During the long trial of the case he became 
ill ; and one day was obliged to leave the court- 
room and go to his hotel. He charged me to 
take down every word of Mr. Lord's argument, 
and to bring to him the notes of it in the even- 
ing. I found him in bed with a physician present, 
who told him he should prescribe calomel. " How 
large a dose have you been accustomed to ? " 
asked the physician. " I don't know," replied 
Mr. Choate, " but give me the largest dose you 
ever gave a man in your life ! " 

On account of his illness, the court was ad- 
journed from Friday to Monday; and, on the 
morning of the latter day, Mr. Choate came into 
court looking wan and showing signs of his indis- 
position. He began to speak, evidently in wea- 

17 



258 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

riness, but growing stronger as he continued ; 
and, thenceforward, all that day and for the most 
of the next day he poured forth strains of elo- 
quence and argumentative power that I have 
never heard rivaled. His brief was a mass of 
loose letter sheets, on which, in his peculiar chi- 
rography, he had jotted down in dashes, trammels, 
hooks, quavers, and quail-tracks, such memoranda 
of the case as seemed, from his argument, to cover 
the whole controversy. The rain fell from his 
bushy locks ; his voice (I never heard such a 
voice) kept tone to the rhythm of his eloquence 
and power of his argument. No man living could 
have excelled him in that speech. 

In his opening remarks, full of pathos and 
beauty, he deprecated the events of " sad and 
singular interest " that had led to the dismem- 
berment of the great Methodist Church, and ven- 
tured the expression of the hope that if the steps 
the plaintiff had taken should turn out to be " un- 
profitable as well as devious," it would be easier 
to retrace them. " Many times," said he, " I re- 
member the historian tells us, many times, the 
alienating states of Greece had all but made up 
their minds to discontinue the common consulta- 
tion of the Oracle of Delphi, and seek for the will 
of Jove in divers local temples ; and they would 
have done so had not the impracticability of par- 



THE METHODIST CHURCH CASK. 259 

titioning the treasures which the piety of so 
many generations had gathered on the charmed, 
neutral ground necessitated a salutary delay." 

His whole argument was one of triumphant 
vigor ; and had it been made thirty years later, 
when the sentiments that ruled courts and judges 
on the Southern question had come to a sounder 
basis, it would have been successful. No judge, 
with his eye on the presidency, could, at that day, 
be convinced by the eloquence of a Choate or the 
logic of a Plato, if that conviction resulted in a 
judgment against the South. The great North 
was, however, right that day, though the Court 
gave the palm of victory to the South. 

After the stenographer had written out the 
speech of Mr. Choate, I mailed it, directed to him 
at Boston, with the request that he would correct 
and return it, as it was intended to preserve a full 
history of the case and of the arguments as well. 
He returned it without the correction of a word, 
writing me a humorous and interesting letter. A 
filibuster, named Lopez, had, just before, set sail 
with an expedition against Cuba. Mr. Choate 
wrote that he had not found time to correct the 
speech, and probably would not find time to do 
so, " until Lopez hoisted his piratical flag over 
Havana ! " 

When the question of what should be the char- 



260 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

acter of the Smithsonian Institution was under 
discussion in the Senate of the United States, Mr. 
Choate, who had been lately made a senator for 
Massachusetts in place of Mr. Webster, promoted 
to the cabinet, took part in the debate. He 
made, as I was told by the late Dr. Bishop, who 
was present, the great speech of the occasion. 
He ranged over the field of literature, and por- 
trayed the beneficent influence of literary institu- 
tions, and claimed for the Smithsonian a founda- 
tion of broad character. Senators crowded around 
him to listen to the new wonder ; and, as he re- 
sumed his seat, Calhoun, who stood near, leaning 
on the back of a chair, exclaimed to some sena- 
tors, " Massachusetts sent us a Webster, but, in 
the name of heaven, whom have they sent us 
now ? " 

I do not shrink from recording my deliberate 
opinion that Rufus Choate was the greatest law- 
yer and the most eloquent orator of his time. 
Probably, as a belles lettres scholar he had no 
superior ; while the vast range of his rich and 
copious vocabulary was equaled only by the vocal 
music that charmed it, and that wonderful play 
of thought that set both in motion. Under his 
magic wand, 

" A brighter emerald twinkled in the grass, 
A deeper sapphire melted in the sea." 



LETTER FROM HON. GEORGE W. NESMITH. 



The Honorable George W. Nesmith, late one of 
the justices of the Supreme Court of New Hamp- 
shire, who was in college with Mr. Choate and 
was his confidential friend afterwards, has had the 
kindness to send me this paper : — 

My dear Sir, — I confess it would be a hope- 
less task for me to delineate the character of Ru- 
fus Choate. You have given, in your own fin- 
ished style, a concise, yet comprehensive, view of 
what he was and did, and you have been aided by 
those who saw and heard him more frequently 
than myself. Yet I will place my memory at 
your service. 

I knew him well while at college. Our ac- 
quaintance commenced in 1816. He was one 
year in advance of me in collegiate standing and 
in age. I belonged to the same literary society 
with him for three years, and remember with 
pleasure his leadership there. During my last 
year at college he was a tutor. 



262 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

After graduation we lived a hundred miles 
apart. I frequently saw him when I visited Bos- 
ton, had interviews with him, and occasionally 
heard him in courts of justice. I was with him 
in the Whig presidential conventions at the nomi- 
nations of General Taylor, at Philadelphia, and of 
General Scott, at Baltimore. At both conven- 
tions we supported Mr. Webster as a candidate. 
I afterwards heard his famous eulogy upon Mr. 
Webster. A short time before his death, I had 
an interesting conversation with him, in which he 
announced the unwelcome intelligence that his 
physicians had notified him to quit all labor and 
to take a sea voyage, as this offered the only 
hope of recruiting his feeble bodily frame. 

The only reminiscence of his college life which 
occurs to me as not already narrated by your cor- 
respondents was an amusing practical joke perpe- 
trated by him and some other students. They 
exchanged potatoes for apples in the sole remain- 
ing sack of a farmer of the name of Johnson, 
from Norwich, and then induced Johnson to offer 
the contents of the sack for sale at the college. 
A purchase was made by the students who had 
been notified of his approach, and then, upon 
opening the sack, an outcry was raised against 
Johnson for attempted imposition. Protestations 
of innocence were met with ridicule, and sug- 



EARLY EXHORTATION. 263 

gestions of the interference of the Evil One. 
Choate, standing in front of Johnson, amused at 
the perplexity depicted upon his countenance, 
exclaimed, " Would that Hogarth were here ! " 
Johnson caught at the name with suspicion, and 
afterward offered to reward us if we would tell 
where Hogarth was to be found. 

One of Choate's most eloquent and effective 
speeches was delivered in his senior year at col- 
lege, in the autumn of 1818, while acting as presi- 
dent of our literary society. It was upon the 
occasion of the introduction of many members 
from the Freshman class. The custom of presi- 
dents of the association had been to make a brief 
formal speech, setting forth the objects of the so- 
ciety and the duties of its members, and that was 
all we expected. We were surprised by a well 
prepared and eloquent address of considerable 
length. At that time he was in vigorous health 
and full of energy. The silvery tones of his voice, 
resounding through our little hall, kept the as- 
sembly spell-bound while he discoursed upon those 
elements of character essential to the formation of 
the ripe scholar and the useful citizen. The late 
Chief Justice Perley was one of the young men 
then made members of the society of " Social 
Friends." In after-life I often heard him allude, 
in terms of high commendation, to that perform- 



264 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

ance. On the following day I undertook to note 
down in a little scrap-book some of the thoughts 
to which Choate had given utterance, although 
I could not reproduce the brilliant language in 
which they were expressed. I give some of those 
memoranda : — 

" To make the successful scholar, patient, con- 
stant, well-directed labor is an absolute requisite." 
" He must aim at reaching the highest standard 
of excellence of character. Good mental endow- 
ments must be allied to conscience, truthfulness, 
manliness. In the affairs of life, brains are essen- 
tial, but truth, or heart, more so." " Not genius 
so much as sound principles, regulated by good 
discretion, commands success. We often see men 
exercise an amount of influence out of all pro- 
portion to their intellectual capacities, because, 
by their steadfast honesty and probity, they 
command the respect of those who know them. 
George Herbert says, ' A handful of good life is 
worth a bushel of learning.' Burns' father's ad- 
vice to his son was good, — 

' He bade me act the manly part, 
Though I had ne'er a farthing, 
For, without an honest, manly heart, 
No man was worth regarding.' 

"A critic said of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 
that, if he had possessed reliableness of character, 



MORAL FIRMNESS. 265 

he might have ruled the world ; but, for want of 
it, his splendid gifts were comparatively useless. 
Burke was a man of transcendent gifts, but the 
defect in his character was want of moral firmness 
and good temper. To succeed in life we must not 
only be conscientious, we must have also energy 
f w iH ; — a strong determination to do manly 
work for ourselves and others. The strong man 
channels his own path, and easily persuades others 
to walk in it." " When Washington took com- 
mand of the American army, the country felt as 
if its forces had been doubled. So, when Chat- 
ham was appointed Prime Minister in England, 
great confidence was created in the government." 
"After General Greene had been driven out of 
South Carolina by Cornwallis, having fought the 
battle of Guilford Court House, he exclaimed, ' I 
will now recover South Carolina, or die in the at- 
tempt.' It was this stern mental resolve that en- 
abled him to succeed." " Every student should 
improve his opportunities to cultivate his powers. 
He owes this duty to his friends, his instructors, 
and his country. Our learned men are the hope 
and strength of the nation. < They stamp the 
epochs of national life with their own greatness.' 
They give character to our laws and shape our in- 
stitutions, found new industries, carve out new 
careers for the commerce and labor of society; 



266 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

they are, in fact, the salt of the earth, in life as 
well as in death. Constituting, as they do, the 
vital force of a nation and its verv life-blood, 
their example becomes a continual stimulant and 
encouragement to every young man who has aspi- 
rations for a higher station or the higher honors 
of society. Now, my brethren and young friends, 
we beseech you to strive earnestly to excel in this 
honorable race for just fame and true glory, and 
in your efforts to mount up upon the fabled lad- 
der do not be found, in the spirit of envy, pulling 
any above you down, but rather, in the exercise 
of a more liberal spirit, holding out a helping hand 
to a worthy brother who may be struggling below 
you. Be assured you exalt yourselves in propor- 
tion as you raise up the humbler ones." 

The second part of his discourse was specially 
devoted to the pleasure and rewards derived from 
an intimate acquaintance with classical learning. 
His suggestions were valuable and impressive, and 
urged home upon our attention with great rhe- 
torical force. If this speech had been published, 
it would have furnished the young student with a 
profitable guide in his pursuit of knowledge. 

Mr. Choate has been rightly described to you 
as an original nondescript. He was like no other 
person in his style of writing, or in his oratory. 
He perceived quickly and acquired rapidly. He 



FASHIONED FOR A POET. 267 

possessed a retentive memory, appropriating to 
himself readily the thoughts of others. To his 
able reasoning powers he united an imagina- 
tion " richly perfumed from Carmel's flowery top," 
powerful, soaring, unbounded. He seemed to 
have been fashioned for a poet. He remarked to 
me one day that he loved poetry, but poetry did 
not love him. 

As to temper, he was always indulgent and 
kind, speaking evil of none. In his daily inter- 
course with others, he was courteous and liberal 
to a fault. He was naturally gentle ; but, when 
pressed hard, was capable of inflicting blows that 
left an impression. I once heard him deal with a 
bad witness in court. He did not call him hard 
names, but covered him over with an oily sar- 
casm so deep that the jury did not care to look 
after him. In other words, the witness was slain 
politely, and laid out to dry. 

Not far from the year 1845, the Hon. Levi 
Woodbury was invited by the literary societies of 
Dartmouth College to deliver an oration at the an- 
nual Commencement in July. Going thither, I 
had a seat in the stage coach with Mr. Webster, 
Mr. Woodbury, and Mr. Choate. A good oppor- 
tunity was presented of witnessing their conversa- 
tional powers. Mr. Webster and Judge Woodbury 
had for many years resided in Portsmouth, N. H., 



268 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

and topics relative to men and scenes there were 
much discussed by them. Of course I could not 
but be an interested listener. The early history 
of our State, the character of the settlers, their 
leaders, their privations and sufferings by reason 
of Indian warfare, the character of our early gov- 
ernors, and the growth of the State, with historical 
reminiscences and anecdotes, were introduced. I 
was surprised to find that Mr. Choate was so fa- 
miliar with our early history as to give dates and 
events with accuracy. By easy transitions they 
passed to the judiciary of the State and the mem- 
bers of the bar, discussing their respective merits. 
On these local subjects the New Hampshire men, 
of course, had the vantage ground. Wishing to 
give new direction, therefore, to the conversation, 
I asked Mr. Choate as to his later reading. He 
answered that he had recently been occupied in 
the perusal of Milton's prose and poetry. Mr. 
Webster said to him, " As you are so recently out 
of Paradise, will you tell me something about the 
talk that Adam and Eve had before and after the 
fall ? " Mr. Choate asked, " Do you intend that as 
a challenge to me ? " Webster answered, " Yes, I 
do." Choate hereupon recited promptly portions 
of the addresses of Adam to Eve, and Eve to 
Adam, much to the edification of his audience. 
Webster rejoined with the description of the con- 



ESTIMATE OF HUMAN GLORY. 209 

flict between Gabriel and Satan, from the sixth 
book of " Paradise Lost." His recitation was re- 
ceived with applause. John Milton himself, had 
he been present, would have been satisfied with 
the performers on that occasion. We had seen 
celebrated actors on the stage, but none before 
like those in the sta«;e. 

At my last interview with Mr. Choate in Boston, 
after alluding to his incessant and severe labor at 
the bar for many years, he said he was literally 
worn out, and added, in a melancholy way, " I 
have cared much more for others than for my- 
self ; I have spent my strength for naught." I re- 
minded him that he had gained high reputation 
in his profession, and also as a scholar, and that 
this was his reward. He said, " We used to read 
that this kind of fame was but an empty bubble ; 
now I know it is nothing else." Such was Mr. 
Choate's estimate of human glory when con- 
sciously near the termination of his eventful and 
honored life. He added, "My light here is soon 
to be extinguished. I think often of the grave. 
I am animated by the hope of that glorious im- 
mortality to be enjoyed in a kingdom where sin 
and sorrow cannot come." 

I remain, very respectfully, etc., 

GEO. W. NESMITH. 
To Hon. Jos. Neilson. 



LETTERS FROM HON. WILLIAM STRONG. 



Although not written for publication, I am per- 
mitted, upon my special request, to give the fol- 
lowing portions of letters received from the Hon. 
William Strong, Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTER OF JANUARY 30, 1877. 

" I read twice, carefully, Trevelyan's ' Life of 
Macaulay ' immediately after its publication in 
this country. I had previously read Mr. Brown's 
charming biography of Mr. Choate, and read it, I 
believe, more than once. Until your article in the 
' Albany Law Journal ' appeared, it had not oc- 
curred to me to compare the two men, and even 
now I find it difficult to compare them. In my 
judgment, they were very unlike. Undoubtedly 
there were some particulars in which they resem- 
bled each other. Both had remarkable powers 
of memory, but Macaulay's was rather the mem- 
ory of words, while Choate's was that of ideas 
as well as of words. Each of them had a large 



A SPARING GIVER. 271 

element of the dramatic. Each was a natural 
poet. Each was a man of great industry and of 
brilliant accomplishments. But here the resem- 
blance seems to me to cease. Considering that 
Macaulay was free from the cares and pressures of 
a profession, and, indeed, from any demands that 
interfered with his entire devotion to any subject 
that interested him, he gave comparatively little 
to society and to the world. He made a few 
speeches (not many) in the House of Commons. 
He wrote a few reviews and essays. He wrote 
some pretty poetry, and he wrote his ' History of 
England.' He prepared also (with much help) his 
Indian Code. All these things were well done ; 
most of them were brilliant. They were, and they 
will long continue to be, very readable. But 
every one of them was the product of long and 
uninterrupted labor ; written and re-written again 
and again, and never permitted to go from him 
until he had expended upon it his best culture and 
his highest power. We see, therefore, in Trevel- 
yan's Life, Macaulay at his best, and only on the 
very apices of his powers. Choate never had time 
for such expenditure of labor, and he was less 
careful of his posthumous reputation. Yet he was 
at least equally brilliant, more versatile, and far 
more logical. His style, undressed, is as beautiful 
as that of Macaulay arrayed in its best costume, 



272 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

and his oratorical powers seem to me to have been 
much higher. His ability to influence and sway 
other minds has never been surpassed. But I 
have no time to go into an analysis of Macaulay's 
and Choate's mental powers, acquisitions, and cul- 
ture." 

" In moral traits the two men are not to be 
compared. Though Macaulay was tender and lov- 
ing to his mother and sisters, perhaps also to Ellis, 
he loved himself supremely. Beyond this narrow 
circle there can hardly be said to have been any 
who had a place in his heart. He was conspicu- 
ously vain, envious, jealous, and lastingly malig- 
nant. Yet he was a great and brilliant man. But 
how unlike the great and brilliant American ! " 

" I shall wait for the completion of your articles 
with much interest, and perhaps I should not have 
thrown out the crude observations I have made. 
Yet I will add one remark. Perhaps the mellow- 
ing influence of a cordial acceptance of Christian- 
ity will account for the superior loveliness of Mr. 
Choate's character over that of Macaulay. Can 
there be anything more touching than the former's 
conduct at the baptism of his dying daughter ? " 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTER OF JUNE 16, 1877. 

" I have read with great interest all you have 
said of Mr. Choate in the ' Albany Law Journal.' 



MUCH TO ADMIRE. 273 

You certainly have no reason to regret the work 
you have done in bringing before the thought of 
the country the most remarkable man (in some 
particulars) who in modern times has appeared in 
the legal profession. I have admired your analy- 
sis of his character and endowments. You have 
done a work I should have feared to attempt. 
There was so much to admire in Mr. Choate, from 
whatever stand-point one looked at him, that it is 
difficult to speak the truth of him without expos- 
ure to the charge of exaggeration. His affection 
and his domestic life how charming ! His sense 
of honor how keen ! His subjection to the control 
of high moral principles how complete and con- 
stant ! His imagination how brilliant and chaste ! 
His logical power how masterly ! His memory 
how tenacious, and his industry how untiring ! 
He seems to have united in himself the highest 
excellences that are generally considered inconsist- 
ent with each other ; for illustration, the power of 
exact reasoning and of sharp discrimination, with 
the most playful fancy ; and a devotion to his 
professional engagements, apparently disdainful of 
rest, with a ceaseless and demonstrative outflow 
of the best affections of the heart. He proved 
that these virtues are not necessarily incongruous. 
And then where could he have found time for so 
much classical reading ? Macaulay had no profes- 

18 



274 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

sion to which he was tied. His business was to be 
a reader and a general student. Mr. Choate had 
enough for a life's work which demanded his first 
attention, and that work was always done." 



LETTER FROM REV. R. S. STORRS, D. D. 



In this paper the Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D. D., 
LL. D., pays a becoming tribute to the genius 
and personality of Mr. Choate. With a profound 
sense of the harmony that exists between the 
written and the suggested eulogy, I may be al- 
lowed to say that, while I have often heard old 
friends of Mr. Choate speak of the magnetic at- 
traction of his voice and manner, of the fascina- 
tion with which others w r ere drawn to him as by 
some spell not to resisted or forgotten, I never 
before had so clear a conception of the power of 
such sovereign qualities. By this paper we are 
led to think of Mr. Choate as in his old manner ; 
and, through the mazes of life, study, and service, 
catch glimpses of him everywhere. We are also 
reminded that, beyond the skill which may be 
taught and learned, more natural, vivid, subtile, 
and enduring ; richer, higher, and holier far than 
mere outward manifestation, was the influence 
which Mr. Choate exerted in forming the taste 
and style, strengthening the loyalty, faith, devo- 



276 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

tion, and judgment of those who were brought 
into communion with him. It may also be under- 
stood how one thus favored and impressed can 
write as if the voice of his long-lost friend could 
still be heard, as if the clouds and shadows of the 
intervening time were swept aside, and what is 
told had occurred but yesterday. 

My deae Judge Neilson, — I wish that it were 
in my power to send you such reminiscences of 
Mr. Choate as would be worthy to be associated 
with your excellent articles, and with the interest- 
ing and valuable letters which you are gathering 
from others. But so many years have passed 
since I had frequent occasion to meet him, and my 
thoughts in the long interval have been so closely 
occupied with the incessant duties of a different 
profession, that I could hardly hope to furnish 
anything of incident which other pens have not 
anticipated, or to add a needed line or tint to your 
careful picture. It is a pleasure to me, however, 
and the impulse of a sincere gratitude to one who 
was kind to me in my youth, and whose genius 
and spirit were full to me then of a fine inspira- 
tion, to record my sense of the extraordinary gifts 
of the man, and of his beautiful and unselfish tem- 
per. It will hardly be worth while to print what 
I write. If it shall give you any suggestion as to 



AN IMPRESSION. 277 

how he appeared from my point of view, it will 
have fully served its purpose. 

I saw Mr. Choate for the first time at Amherst, 
nearly forty years ago, 1 — I think in 1838, — 
when he tried a case there before referees, his 
opponent being Hon. Isaac C. Bates, then of 
Northampton. Mr. Bates was a man of great 
personal dignity and grace, as well as of com- 
manding ability, whom it was always delightful 
to see and to hear ; but one of the faculty of the 
college had incidentally said to me that this Mr. 
Choate was a man who should have been a Greek 
professor, but who somehow had wandered into 
the law, and my curiosity was keenly excited to 
see one who read Plato or Demosthenes "with 
his feet on the fender," and who still conde- 
scended to argue questions of contracts, usury, 
and the title to lands. The details of his argu- 
ment have long since passed from my recollection ; 
but I remember, as if it had been yesterday, the 
power which he showed in the cross-examination 
of some specially shrewd and stubborn witnesses, 
the vigor and rapidity of his argumentation, the 
force of his invective, and the exceeding beauty 
of two or three swift touches of description with 
which he fairly illuminated the landscape, with 
some of whose crooked boundary-lines his argu- 

1 Written in 1877. 



278 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

merit was concerned. Tones of his voice which I 
then heard are still in my ear; and the unique 
and mysterious enchantment of his presence — his 
curling locks, dark as the raven's wing ; his weird, 
sad, unworldly eyes ; a certain remote and solitary 
air which seemed to invest him — stirred my im- 
agination, fastened to him my wondering thought. 
I was reminded of the personal effect then pro- 
duced on me, when standing, many years after, in 
the Florentine chapel, before the darkening mar- 
ble of the famous statue of Duke Lorenzo, whose 
face 

" Is lost in shade; yet, like the basilisk, 
It fascinates, and is intolerable." 

Mr. Choate's appearance, at that time in his 
life, was potent as a spell over young imagina- 
tions. It chained the eye, and haunted the mem- 
ory. One longed, yet almost feared, to know him. 
He appeared to my fancy a sort of Oriental emir, 
hardly at home in our strange land, who would 
have spoken with more abundant natural freedom 
in one of the great Semitic dialects, and among 
whose treasures there must be no end of jewels, 
spiceries, and inestimable mails. 

I afterwards heard him many times: in his 
eulogy on President Harrison, for example, in 
Faneuil Hall, in 1841 ; in several of his political 
speeches, at one of which, in Boston, I remem- 



A STUDENT AT LAW. 279 

ber still his glancing description of the recent 
nomination of Briggs and Reed for governor and 
lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, as fitly rep- 
resenting the State in its completeness, — " Berk- 
shire and Cape Cod, the mighty backbone and the 
strong right-arm of the old Commonwealth." I 
heard him on one Fourth of July at Concord, 
when he followed "Webster, Berrien, and others, 
in an address of extraordinary force and splendor, 
which fairly whirled upon its feet one of the most 
exacting assemblies that I remember to have seen. 
I not infrequently heard him in court, though not, 
as it happened, in any one of the causes cclebres 
with which his public fame is conspicuously con- 
nected. I heard his magnificent eulogy on Web- 
ster, at Hanover, in 1853 ; and I met him for the 
last time, I think, at Salem, in 1856, when his 
genius, wit, and kindly courtesy were as abound- 
ing and delightful as ever, though the shadows on 
his face and the unfathomed pathos of his eye 
were as impressive as anything ever seen on coun- 
tenance or canvas. 

In the autumn of 1840, I was received by Mr. 
Choate as a student in his office, though circum- 
stances forbade, at the time, my residence in Bos- 
ton. Early in 1841, he was elected to the na- 
tional Senate, as the successor of Mr. Webster; 
and I thenceforth saw him only occasionally, 



280 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

though for the following year and a half I was all 
the time pursuing my studies under his direction, 
and at intervals reporting my progress to him. I 
really knew him better, I think, after this tran- 
sient connection with his office had ceased than 
while it continued ; and the thought has been a 
pleasant one to me that the church of which I 
have long been the pastor took an impulse to its 
formation from that transcendent address of his 
in New York, in 1843, of which Mr. Van Cott has 
eloquently written. 

The instant and eager boyish admiration with 
which I at first regarded Mr. Choate gave place, 
as I knew him, and as my own mind advanced to- 
ward maturity, to a more discriminating yet more 
profound sense of his varied and prodigal intel- 
lectual gifts. I can but repeat what others have 
said. My only excuse for repeating it at all is 
that you have asked me, and that my impression 
is not copied from others, but was individual and 
received at first-hand. 

He was a scholar by instinct and by the deter- 
mining force of his nature. All forms of high 
intellectual activity had charm and reward for his 
sympathetic and splendid intelligence. He espe- 
cially delighted, however, in history, philosophy, 
eloquence, and the immense riches of the ancient 
literature. His library was peopled to him with 



HIS RELISH FOR STUDY. 281 

living rriinds. The critical and august procedures 
in history were as evident to him as processions in 
the streets. No inspiring and majestic voice had 
spoken from Athenian berna, in Roman forum, in 
Ens-lish Parliament whose vital words, even whose 
tones, did not still echo in his ear. He would 
have made a Greek professor, elegant in scholar- 
ship, rich in acquisition, energetic and liberal in 
instruction. I am not aware that he ever made 
special study of theology. He simply took it up, 
I think, with a literary interest, when its great 
discussions came in his way ; yet Professor Park 
once said of him, after a half day's conversation, 
that " If he had not been the first lawyer of his 
time, he might have been its most eminent theo- 
logian." (It is only fair to add that Mr. Choate, 
knowing nothing of this remark, said to the same 
gentleman — Mr. Lawrence, then of Andover, — 
that " If Professor Park had not been the great 
theologian that he was, he would have surpassed 
any man whom he knew at the American bar.") 

His relish for thought, and for the powerful ex- 
pression of thought in the most fit and admirable 
words was only matured by his life-long habit. 
From the crowd in the court-room, the pressure 
of cases, the pursuit of clients, and all the ele- 
ments and the incidents of suits, still quivering 
with the excitement which had searched every 



282 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

nerve in his throbbing frame, he retreated to the 
authors, ancient and modern, in whom he de- 
lighted; and it was as if he had changed the 
noisy world for another, more serene and exalt- 
ing. There were the bloom and the music that 
he loved, the clearer lights on statelier shores, the 
spirits that touched his to expand and renew it. 
He could not go to the White Mountains, on a 
four-days' journey, without taking with him a 
trunkful of books. He was simply true to his 
consciousness in saying that, if he were to go to 
Newport for pleasure without his books, he should 
hang himself before evening. 

Yet, with his instinctive delight in learning, and 
in the commerce with illustrious minds to which it 
introduced him, with the accumulating acquisitions 
with which it enriched him, and the constant im- 
pressions upon his own intellect which came from 
eminent orators and thinkers, he retained, abso- 
lutely, the native peculiarities of a genius as gen- 
uine, and certainly as striking, as has anywhere 
appeared among American public men. You 
have contrasted him with Macaulay. But in one 
respect they were certainly alike. Both " carried 
lightly their load of learning." His mental eye 
was as fine as a microscope for almost impercep- 
tible distinctions. He penetrated instantly, with 
affirmative insight, to the secret of entangled and 



his imagination: 283 

complex matters. His logical faculty was as keen 
and expert as if he had never done anything else 
but state and argue questions of law in the courts. 
His memory had a grasp, which was utterly re- 
lentless, on any principle, fact, or phrase ; while 
his judgment was as prompt, within its limits as 
sagacious, as if he had never heard of Greek par- 
ticles and never had read a Latin page. But the 
imagination was certainly supreme in him ; while 
his fancy was also as sparkling and exuberant as 
if no argument had ever been wrought by him in 
its constraining and infrangible links. This made 
his mind not only stimulating but startling, abun- 
dant in surprises, suddenly radiant on far themes. 
He said nothing in a commonplace way. A flash 
of unfamiliar beauty and power was in his slight 
and casual remarks. The reports of some of them 
are still, I suspect, as current in court-rooms as 
when he lived ; while, on the larger historical or 
philosophical subjects, his sentences, now and 
then, were as literal sunbursts, enlightening half 
a continent with their gleam. He said as little, 
I should think, as any man who ever lived, of 
like culture and equal eminence, on the supreme 
matters of God, destiny, immortality ; but I can 
easily understand, what I used to be told, that, 
when in rare and preeminent moods he touched 
these topics, among intimate friends, his words 



284 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

were to the usual words of men on similar sub- 
jects as superb, tropical passion-flowers among the 
duller, common growths, purple and golden in 
their hues, while inclosing at their heart memorial 
sisms of the Divine sadness. 

With this sensitive, vigorous, and various gen- 
ius, and these large acquisitions, Mr. Choate 
threw himself, with all the energy of his strenuous 
will, into his chosen profession of the law. He 
loved it, and he idealized it. He was proud of 
its history ; he exulted in its great names. The 
law was to him the expression of the highest jus- 
tice of the state, enlightened and directed by its 
instructed and intuitive reason. It essentially con- 
cerned, therefore, the moral life of communities 
and of centuries. It had immense historical re- 
lations. As obtaining among us, for example, it 
was the impalpable, vital presence which con- 
nected our recent, fragmentary history, our cir- 
cumscribed American life, with the great life of 
England, and with its renowned and crowded an- 
nals, back to the time of Edward the Confessor 
and " the common folk-right of the realm ; ,;i back, 
indeed, to the days of King Alfred. He meant 
to be master of it, by the most exact, profound, 
indefatigable study of statutes, cases, and the prin- 
ciples they involved. I perfectly remember how 
this sovereign and far-reaching view of the law 



LOVE FOR THE LAW. 285 

impressed my thought, and stirred my enthusiasm, 
when I first talked with him; how fundamental 
it was in the scheme of study which he outlined 
before me ; how incessantly it reappeared, when- 
ever I met him. He was at one time, certainly, a 
most searching and systematic student of the vast 
Roman law ; and no novel ever fastened the eyes 
of its readers as did any book which illustrated 
the principles, the practice, or the history of the 
law, the eyes and mind of Mr. Choate. He loved 
to regard it as radically grounded, with whatever 
imperfections, in the enduring cosmical equities, 
deriving from them its virtue and validity. The 
country had to him historical importance as the 
home of a matured and ubiquitous law, guarding 
the weak, avenging the humble, restraining while 
protecting the wealthiest and highest. The colo- 
nization of the country was impressive to him, not 
so much for its picturesque incidents as because it 
had brought hither this great inheritance of rights 
and of rules, acquired through ages. The magis- 
trates of the law were venerable to him, however 
plainly inferior to himself in ability and learning. 
The courts were temples of order and justice. He 
spoke only the feeling of his life when he said 
before the legislative committee, " I never read, 
without a thrill of sublime emotion, the conclud- 
ing words of the Bill of Rights, — 'to the end 



286 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

that this may be a government of law, and not 
of men.' " 

The application of the law to cases requiring 
careful adjudication was, therefore, to him a mat- 
ter of real and serious importance. In connection 
with it he recoiled from no labor, and was impa- 
tient of no details. The most trivial incidents 
became critical and grave when they furnished 
occasions for declaring and administering those 
permanent rules of social order which had been 
elaborated through centuries of years, for which 
brave men had fought and suffered, and which 
had their fruit in the peace of the state, as they 
had their life in the supreme ethical harmonies. 

I do not at all mean to imply that he was not 
intensely ambitious of success, in whatever cause 
he undertook. Certainly he was ; and the fervid 
passion grew with his growth, was more eager 
after each victory, became most intense when 
his famous successes had prejudiced juries, made 
judges wary if not hostile, and rendered future 
similar victories almost impossible. Indeed, his 
normal rule of practice distinctly was, that each 
party should present his case in its fullest strength, 
with whatsoever could make it persuasive ; so 
that out of the sharpest possible collisions of argu- 
ment and of testimony the final result might be 
deduced. He thought of his client, and of no- 



THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW. 287 

body else, when he stood for him before a tribu- 
nal. Everything that could possibly serve that 
client commanded, thereby, his zealous approval. 
Everything that threatened him was somehow 
or other to be overcome. If the floor of the 
court-room had fallen beneath him, unless it had 
stunned him, I am sure that it would not have 
beaten from his mind the thought of his case for 
more than a minute. But in spite of this he had, 
when I knew him, an ideal sense of the majesty 
of the law, of its moral dignity, and its historical 
office, which gave an undertone, delicate and 
grand, to all his common professional work. He 
could not have labored with that intensity which 
was constant with him, except for this inspiriting 
force ; yet I have no idea that he ever knowingly 
misrepresented a principle of the law to serve the 
client, who was to him, for the passing moment, as 
his own life. Governor Bullock once mentioned to 
me an incident which came under his notice when 
Webster and Choate were antagonists before the 
court. Mr. Choate had lucidly, with great em- 
phasis, stated the law. Mr. Webster — than whom 
a greater master of attitude, gesture, and facial 
expression never lived — turned on him the gaze 
of his great eye, as if in mournful, despairing re- 
monstrance against such a sad and strange per- 
version. " That is the law, may it please your 



288 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Honor," thundered Mr. Choate, catching the 
glance, advancing a step, and looking full in Web- 
ster's face, " That is the law, in spite of the ad- 
monishing, the somewhat paternal look in the eye 
of my illustrious friend." x And it was the law, 
as affirmed by the court. 

The fervent enthusiasm with which Mr. Choate 
devoted himself to the trial of his cases could 
only be understood by those who recognized the 
genius of the man, craving exercise and excite- 
ment, his culture supplying him with unmeasured 
resources, and the admiration which he felt for the 
law, with its magistrates and tribunals. It had 
little to do with fees or with applause. It was 
sometimes shown in the unnoticed case, in the 
small back-office of some referee, with no audience 
present, as fully as in the echoing court-room, on 
a grand field-day. I never heard of a mind of 
such compass as his, so energetic and so affluent, 
which heated so quickly. It was like a superb 
Corliss engine, driven for days with a bushel of 
coal. The mere attrition of any case, where the 

1 Suck dainty and humorous use of words was constant with him. 
" When I had heen two days on the Rhine," he said to me at Han- 
over, " I knew the whole river perfectly ; couldn't have known it 
better if I 'd been drowned in it." A reputation which had been 
damaged in the courts was, "to make the best of it, sadly tene- 
brious." His "overworked participle," his description of the wit- 
ness testifying, in a case where a tailor was concerned, " with an eye 
to pantaloons in the distance," etc., are well-known. 



HIS ENTHUSIASM. 289 

facts were in doubt and the principles obscure, 
was enough to set his whole force in activity. 
And the enthusiasm, so easily enkindled, was as 
enduring as it was instantaneous. It almost liter- 
ally knew no limit. It saw every difficulty, faced 
every juridical danger, snatched every instrument 
of impression, watched the face of every juror, 
took instant suggestion from the eye or even 
the attitude of the judge, felt the subtile force 
of the general feeling pervading the court-room, 
kept all the facts and all the principles incessantly 
in mind, transfigured them all in the radiance of 
genius, and shot his vivid interpretation of all 
upon the jury, in the most plausible, deferential, 
captivating, commanding utterance which even 
lips so skilled and practiced could attain. Weak- 
ness, languor, sickness itself vanished before this 
invincible spirit. Haggard, wan, after a night of 
sleepless suffering, his throat sore, his head throb- 
bing, swathed in flannels, buried under overcoats, 
with wrappings around his neck, a bandage on his 
knee, a blister on his chest, when he rose for his 
argument all facts reported by witnesses in the 
case, all the related and governing precedents, all 
legal principles bearing upon it, all passages of 
history, letters, life, that might illustrate his argu- 
ment or confound his antagonists seemed visibly 
present to his mind. He thought of nothing but 

19 



290 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

jury and verdict. His eloquence was then as 
completely independent of technical rule as are 
screams of passion, or the shouts of a mob. He 
was after a favorable decision of the case, as if 
his own life depended on it. Short, sharp, shat- 
tering words rattled like volleys before and after 
resounding sentences. Language heaped on his 
lips. Images, delicate, homely, startling, blazed 
upon his pictured words. The common court- 
room became a scene of the most astonishing 
intellectual action. Judg;e Shaw looked at him 
as he might have looked at the firm-set heavens, 
glittering with meteors. The farmers, mechanics, 
traders, on the jury, were seized, swept forward, 
stormed upon, with an utterance so unbounded in 
variety and energy, sometimes so pathetic, some- 
times so quaint, sometimes so grotesque, always so 
controlling and impellent, as only his hearers ever 
had heard. The velocity of his speech was almost 
unparalleled, yet the poise of his mind was as 
undisturbed as that of the planet ; and each vague 
doubt, in either mind, was recognized and com- 
bated, unconscious prejudices were delicately con- 
ciliated, each tendency toward his view of the 
case was encouraged and confirmed, each leaning 
toward his opponent was found out and fought, 
with a skill which other men toiled after in vain, 
which seemed in him a strange inspiration. 



HIS COURTESY. 291 

No wonder that he sometimes wrenched the 
verdict from unwilling hands, in cases which 
looked to outsiders as desperate as Bonaparte's 
charge upon the bridge of Areola! No wonder 
that his profession loved and admired him with a 
fervor of feeling which twenty years have not 
diminished, and that " grace and renown " were 
felt to have departed from darkened court-rooms 
when his incomparable mind and mien were no 
more present ! No wonder that Mr. R. H. Dana 
said, in substance, at the meeting of the bar after 
his death, "The great Conqueror, unseen and 
irresistible, has broken into our temple, and has 
carried off the vessels of gold, the vessels of sil- 
ver, the precious stones, and the ivory, and we 
must content ourselves hereafter with vessels of 
wood and stone and iron!" 

I have spoken, my dear Judge, simply of Mr. 
Choate's intellectual endowments, and of his rare 
mental equipment, as these impressed me more 
than thirty years ago. Of the sweet courtesy 
of his feeling and manner in social life, of his 
constancy to his friends, his generosity toward 
his juniors, his unfeigned deference toward the 
bench, of his unresentful spirit toward assailants, 
his utter want of political ambition or pecuniary 
greed, his chivalrous devotion to what he esteemed 
the best public policy, though it severed him from 



292 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

friends and added new shadows to his last years, 
of his blamelessness of life, especially of his habit- 
ual respect for the Divine Revelation, and for the 
house and the ordinances of worship, — of these 
I retain such happy recollections as all those must 
who chanced then, even slightly, to know him. 

But I have immensely outrun already the in- 
tended limits of my letter, and other pens must 
delineate these. I have said enough, I am sure, 
to show you why I am grateful for his influence 
upon me, which was far greater than he knew, 
and why — though I see the limitations of his 
mind, and was never in sympathy with some of 
his opinions — I retain his image with a fond- 
ness and a regret that never will cease. I cannot 
think of him to-day without being braced against 
any temptation to languor in study or remissness 
in work ; without feeling afresh the vastness and 
the charm of that world of thought and of elegant 
letters in which his spirit rejoiced to expatiate ; 
without being consciously grateful to God that, 
at the age when I took impressions most readily 
from others, I was brought for a time into con- 
tact with a mind so remarkable as his, so rich in 
knowledge and so replete with every force, with 
a temper so engaging, with an intellectual en- 
thusiasm so incessant and inspiring. 

Ever, my dear Judge, faithfully yours, 

R. S. STORRS. 



LETTER FROM MATTHEW H. CARPENTER. 



This letter from the late Matthew H. Carpen- 
ter, formerly United States Senator from Wiscon- 
sin, is important not only by reason of his high 
character as a lawyer, but because he had been a 
student under Mr. Choate. 

Deae Sir, — Returning from Washington, I have 
just found yours of the 18th. I have read your 
two articles in the " Law Journal " on Rufus 
Choate. Your articles are an excellent and truth- 
ful generalization of his character, professional and 
political. 

He was more than a father to me, and I loved 
him next to idolatry. I studied law with him 
in 1847 and 1848. The most striking of all his 
characteristics was his regard for the feeling's of 
others. Whatever he might say in the excite- 
ment of a trial in regard to the opposite party, or 
even of witnesses whom he disbelieved, he was, in 
his office, and in all professional and social inter- 
course, most considerate of the feelings of others. 



294 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

I never heard him speak an impatient or angry 
word in my life. Especially to young men did he 
show this tender consideration. Webster's pres- 
ence overawed a young man ; Choate impressed 
the young man with his greatness, but he did so 
by lifting him for the time up to his own level. 
His genius seemed to be an inspiration to every 
young man who entered his presence ; and those 
who had the honor of his acquaintance regarded 
him with an admiration akin to hero-worship. 
Even the old man who tended the fire in the of- 
fice never entered Mr. Choate's room without re- 
ceiving some kindly salutation. His name was 
John — John what I never knew. But Mr. Choate 
always called him Johannes, with a tone of ten- 
derness and affection which delighted him, and 
which lingers in my ear to this day. 

One of Mr. Choate's characteristics was to 
idealize everything. His perception of subtile 
analogies tinged his mind, and appears in his 
utterances; in his mental atmosphere all things, 
however common or even unclean, became trans- 
formed, beautiful. 

Another feature was his charity. From those 
who would borrow he turned not away. I re- 
member an occasion when he was exceedingly 
driven in the preparation of a brief that had to 
be printed for use the next morning. He was ex- 



IN A WE OF WEBSTER. 295 

amining the authorities, and dictating to me as 
his amanuensis. By some inadvertence, his door 
was not locked, as it usually was, and a squalid 
beggar made his way into Mr. Choate's presence. 
He had all day refused to see lawyers, doctors, 
authors, and others. But, seeing the old man, 
he turned to me and said, " My boy, charity is a 
privileged subject, always in order. Let us hear 
what the old man has to say." After listening for 
a while, he determined to give him three dollars, 
and made faithful search through his pockets 
without finding the amount. He then borrowed 
the money of me, and gave it to the old man ; 
and the next morning, when he came into the 
office with three or four overcoats on, he had 
three dollars in his hand, which he threw down 
on my table saying, " There is nothing quite so 
mean as borrowing a small sum of money and 
forgetting to pay it." 

He always stood in awe of Webster, and spent 
nights in preparation when about to contend with 
him at the bar. This I never could understand ; 
as a mere lawyer, I think Choate as much the 
superior of Webster as Webster was the superior 
of lawyers generally. His knowledge of the law, 
his readiness in using all his resources, legal, liter- 
ary, historical, or poetical, his power of advocacy, 
the magnetism of his presence and the absolute 



296 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

enchantment in which he wrapt both court and 
jury never were equaled in any other man, I 
believe. I remember an instance of one of 
Choate's clients coming into his office in great 
glee, and informing Mr. Choate that he had just 
met his antagonist, who had said he expected to 
be beaten in the case, because he had nobody but 
Mr. Webster, who would pay no attention to the 
case until it was called for trial, while Mr. Choate 
would be thoroughly prepared on every point. 
Mr. Choate seemed to be rather displeased than 
flattered, and, turning to his client in a solemn, 
almost tragic, manner, he said, " Beware of any 
hope that rests upon undervaluation of Mr. Web- 
ster. He will be there on the morning of the 
trial with one case from the Term Reports exactly 
in point; and, if we escape with our lives, so 
much the better for us." 

I think he had formed the resolution that no 
man should leave his office except in a pleasant 
mood, if not in a roar of laughter. I remember 
that on one occasion a clergyman came to consult 
him about a matter full of sorrow. During: the 
consultation, Mr. Choate was very much affected, 
and I knew from his tremulous tone, without look- 
ing at him, that his eyes were filled with tears. I 
thought at that time that the old clergyman 
would be an exception, but I was mistaken. Mr. 



BADINAGE AND REVERENCE. 297 

Choate followed him to the door and opened it 
and made some remark which I did not hear, but 
which literally convulsed the old clergyman. 

Mr. Choate's wit and humor were all the more 
effective from the fact that God never put upon 
a man, except perhaps Lincoln, so sad a face. 

During all the time I was with him, his health 
was more or less disturbed, and his face was elo- 
quently expressive of constant anguish. Many a 
time I have seen him come into the office from 
the court-room, the personification of weariness 
and sorrow, so much so that often merely looking 
in his face has forced the moisture to my eyes. 
But the tear never reached my cheek before he 
would set me laughing with some quaint remark. 
I remember his coming; into the office and telling 
me that the Supreme Court of Massachusetts had 
just decided an important cause against him, evi- 
dently to his great surprise. He threw down 
some books and papers on his desk, and after tell- 
ing me of the decision, added in a half-serious, 
half-playful way, " Every judge on that bench 
seems to be more stupid than every other one; 
and if I were not afraid of losing the good opinion 
of the Court I would impeach the whole batch of 
them." Yet, notwithstanding such badinage, his 
reverence for the Court, and especially for Chief 
Justice Shaw, was unbounded. As a further in- 



298 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

stance of such pleasantry, Stevenson, the sculptor, 
told me that he was once engaged in carving a 
lion of exaggerated size ; that, while he was en- 
gaged on the head and mane, Mr. Choate took the 
liveliest interest in the work, calling every morn- 
ing as he came down, and every evening on his 
way home, to mark its progress. Stevenson, be- 
ing curious, asked Mr. Choate why that work in- 
terested him so much. " Why," said Mr. Choate, 
" that is the best likeness of Chief Justice Shaw 
that I ever saw." 

His complete mastery over the melancholy, the 
gloomy emotions of human nature, has reconciled 
me to Shakespeare's representation of Richard the 
Third's making love to Anne in the funeral pro- 
cession of her husband. Had Mr. Choate thus 
met her, he could have lifted the shadows from 
her heart. 

I could go on much longer without being weary 
of the subject ; and, although this has been dic- 
tated in haste, it may be some confirmation of the 
view of Mr. Choate's character which you have so 
admirably set forth. Yours truly, 

MATT. H. CARPENTER. 
To Hon. J. Neilson. 



LETTER FROM JAMES T. FIELDS. 



It was fortunate that the late James T. Fields 
was able to leave this record of his love and ad- 
miration of Mr. Choate : — 

My dear Sir, — I thank you for those numbers 
of the "Albany Law Journal" containing your 
interesting papers on Mr. Choate. Everything 
with reference to that great man is most attrac- 
tive to me, and I could not resist the impulse of 
writing a lecture not long ago on his brilliant 
career, that I might say something to young stu- 
dents, inadequate though it might be, that would 
perhaps incite them, by his example of untiring 
industry, to a more enthusiastic pursuit of knowl- 
edge, and a more earnest study of the art of elo- 
quence. That lecture has already been delivered 
in various colleges and law schools, and I hope 
has led some of my listeners to read Professor 
Brown's memoir of our great advocate, your own 
papers in the " Law Journal," and the reminis- 
cences of Dr. Storrs, Mr. Carpenter, and others, 
who knew and appreciated him. 



300 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

I wish I had the opportunity to comply more 
closely with your kind request, and send a better 
response to your invitation. I can only, before 
getting off for the summer, send you this fragmen- 
tary epistle. 

Mr. Choate is now, to employ Landor's signifi- 
cant line, 

" Beyond the arrows, shouts, and views of men," 

and his supreme qualities are only beginning to be 
apparent in their grander aspects. As a lawyer, 
ranking among the highest ; as an eloquent advo- 
cate, second not even to Lord Erskine, whom he 
far surpassed in scholarship ; as a patriot, devoted 
to public duty solely ; he is now taking his place 
without a rival and without a cavil. Years ago I 
hung up his portrait in the little room we called 
" our library," for a constant reminder of the long- 
continued enjoyment it was my own good fortune 
to have derived from the kind-hearted Mentor and 
friend. To have had the privilege of living in the 
same city with him for so many years, of hearing 
the sound of his voice in public and in private for 
a quarter of a century, was indeed of itself an ed- 
ucation. To the young men of my time, who 
lived so much under the spell of his eloquence, he 
was an inspirer, an initiator ; for he taught us by 
his example to reverence and seek whatever was 
best in learning, and excellent in thought and 



INFLUENCE ON YOUNG MEN 301 

character. As young students of literature, eao-er 
to listen and acquire if we could, we found a new 
power created within us by contact even with such 
a teacher and guide. To follow him, to wait upon 
his footsteps through the courts of law, the Senate, 
or the lecture-room, was in a certain sense to be 

" From unreflecting ignorance preserved." 

His own great acquirements taught us to nurse 
that noble self-discontent which points and leads 
to a loftier region of culture, and impelled us to 
aspirations we had never dreamed of until his af- 
fluent genius led the way. Like Charles Fox, he 
was born with the oratorical temperament, and so 
he magnetized all the younger men who flocked 
about him eager to be instructed. I do not believe 
the " high-placed personage " ever lived in any 
community who had more affection and reverence 
from the youth of his time than Mr. Choate. 
There were about him habitually that diffusive 
love and tenderness which make idolatry possible 
even among one's contemporaries. While he elec- 
trified us, he called us by our Christian names ; 
and when he beckoned us to come, we dared and 
delighted to stand by his side and listen. His will- 
ing and endearing helpfulness made him beloved 
by his inferiors as few men of his conspicuous em- 
inence ever were before, and one could not ap- 
proach him and remain unmoved or only partially 



302 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

attracted. You could not meet him on the street, 
even, without having a fresh impulse given to 
your circulation. During the period when he took 
early morning walks, some of us, mere boys at 
that time, loving the sight of the man and the 
music of his voice, used to be on his track, watch- 
ing for him on his matutinal rounds. As he came 
sailing into view 

" On broad, imperial wings," 

with that superb and natural gait so easily recog- 
nized by those who knew him, 

" Far off bis coming sbone." 

As he swung himself past, he would drop into 
our greedy ears some healthy, exhilarating quota- 
tion, fresh from the fount of song ; some golden 
sentence suited to the day and hour ; something 
ample and suggestive that would linger in our 
memories and haunt our young imaginations years 
afterward, influencing perhaps our whole lives 
onward. 

Happy the youth who was occasionally privi- 
leged to walk with him on such occasions, 

" Under tbe opening eyelids of the morn," 

for then he would discuss, perhaps in his deep and 
never-to-be-forgotten tones of admiration, the lofty 
Homeric poems ; quote the divine, and to him fa- 
miliar, words of Plato ; dilate with a kindred rap- 
ture over some memorable passage of Plutarch ; 



PARTY STRIFE DISTASTEFUL TO HIM. 303 

or hold up for counsel and admonition some of the 
sublimest inspirations of the Bible. Well might a 
young man, thus enchanted, exclaim with Comus, 

" Ob, such a sacred and home-felt delight, 
Such sober certainty of waking bliss 
I never heard till now! " 

He seemed ever on the alert to quicken and in- 
spire thought in the heart and understanding of 
the young. I remember, on the eve of sailing on 
my first brief visit to Europe, he passed me on the 
stairs at a crowded reception, and whispered as he 
went by, " Don't fail, my young friend, if you go 
near it in your travels, to pause at the grave of 
Erasmus for me." 

It was dangerous for any young man, not a stu- 
dent at law, to hear him discourse of the profession 
as he fully and solemnly believed in it, accepting 
as he did the splendid metaphor of Hooker, — 
" Her seat the bosom of God ; her voice the har- 
mony of the world ; all things in heaven and 
earth doing her homage ; the very least as feel- 
ing her care, and the greatest as not exempted 
from her power." One of Choate's former office 
students once said to him, " The more I get into 
practice the more I like the law." " Like it ! " 
said Choate, " of course you do. There is noth- 
ing else for any man of intellect to like." This 
was said in that fine frenzy of exaggeration which 



304 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

he sometimes delighted in, but no young man 
could hear him discourse of jurisprudence and not 
wish to join the ranks. Law was the banner of 
his pride ; the flux and reflux of party strife were 
distasteful to every fibre of his intellect ; and he 
always gave us to understand that he considered 
his profession worthy of all the hope of ambition, 
and all the aspirations for excellence. At the 
bar Mr. Choate towered superior to every kind 
of jealousy, of suspicion, of malevolence, to every 
narrow and sordid motive, to all the meaner 
trepidations of mortality. He was by nature a 
gentleman, and he had no petty vanities, either 
public or private. He was indeed an inspired ora- 
tor. What power, what tenderness, what magnet- 
ism pervaded his utterances ! His voice vibrated 
with every sentiment, every impulse of beauty 
and wisdom. He ran over the whole gamut of 
expression at will. When he spoke of flowers, his 
words seemed to have the very perfume of flowers 
in them ; and when he painted the ocean, which 
he loved so fondly, his tone was as the scent of 
the sea when the wind blows the foam in our faces. 
As Churchill said of Garrick, he also had indeed 

" Strange powers that lie 
Within the magic circle of his eye." 

If he habitually composed for the ear more than 
for the eye, it was because his victories were to 



BEN JONSON AND LORD BACON. 305 

be won face to face with his fellow-men. I have 
heard him argue a hundred cases, perhaps, large 
and small, and he always seemed alike invincible, 
as if no mortal power could take his verdict from 
him. His manner to the opposing counsel was 
full of courtesy and conciliation ; but if that coun- 
sel became arrogant and insulting he would slay 
him with a sentence so full of suavity and keen- 
ness that the unmannerly victim never knew what 
killed him. 

There were uninstructed and unsympathetic lis- 
teners, of course, who described Mr. Choate as 
declamatory, and accused him of being over- 
worded and over-colored, — " driving a substan- 
tive and six," as they called it, — but those same 
platitudinous dwellers in the twilight of the mind 
would no doubt quarrel with the tints in Milton's 
" L' Allegro," and find Collins's " Ode to the Pas- 
sions " highly improper. Mr. Choate was no 
doubt rich and exuberant in his style, but who 
would not prefer the leap of the torrent to the 
stagnation of the swamp ? It was truly said by 
Mr. Everett, in Faneuil Hall, at the sad hour of 
our sharp bereavement in 1859, that with such 
endowments as Mr. Choate possessed he could fill 
no second place. Thinking of the magic orator, 
the profound lawyer, logician, and scholar, I recall 

Ben Jonson's memorable words on the wonderful 

20 



306 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

power of Lord Bacon, for they are all applicable 
to Mr. Choate, — " There happened in my time 
one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his 
speaking. His language (where he could spare 
or pass by a jest) was nobly censorious. No man 
ever spoke more neatly, more pressly, more 
weightily, or suffered less idleness in what he ut- 
tered. No member of his speech but consisted of 
his own graces. His hearer could not cough or 
look aside from him without loss. He commanded 
where he spoke, and had his judges angry and 
pleased at his devotion. No man had their affec- 
tions more in his power. The fear of every one 
that heard him was lest he should make an end." 
And that was just the fear we all had when Choate 
was speaking, — lest he should stop, lest the sound 
of his perfect voice should cease, — lest he too 
should make an end. I cannot but lament that 
those who have more recently put on the legal 
robes, and whose steps are yet on the threshold of 
life, can have no chance of ever hearing those 
magic tones which so thrilled the young students 
of my time, and realized to us that sovereign gen- 
ius which unites the faculty of reasoning with the 
faculty of imagination. 

My letter is already too long. Pardon my pro- 
lixity, and believe me, dear sir, most cordially 

J ' JAMES T. FIELDS. 

To Judge Neilson. 



LETTER FROM DR. BOYDEN. 



Dr. Boyden, of Beverly, Mass., an intimate 
friend of Mr. Choate's, had the kindness to send 
me the following : — 

We entered college together in 1815. He was 
between fifteen and sixteen years of age, very 
youthful and engaging in appearance, modest and 
unpretentious in manner. He had been fitted for 
college in a rather desultory way, his preliminary 
studies with the minister, the doctor, and the 
schoolmaster having been interrupted by seasons 
of work on his father's farm. He had spent a 
short time at Hampton Academy just before com- 
ing to Dartmouth. Several students, fresh from 
Anclover, entered at the same time. They were 
more fully prepared than he, and, at the start, 
showed to better advantage in their recitations. 
But by and by some of these began to fall from 
their first estate, and it was remarked about the 
same time, that " That young Choate in the cor- 
ner recited remarkably well." Before the end of 



308 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

the first term he was the acknowledged leader of 
the class, and he maintained that position until 
graduation, without apparent difficulty. No one 
pretended to rival him, nor did he invite compari- 
son. He paid little attention to the proficiency 
of his fellow-students. His talk was of eminent 
scholars of other countries and of former times, 
and they seemed the objects of his emulation. 
One European scholar being mentioned as hav- 
ing committed to memory the Greek primitives, 
Choate seems to have accepted the suggestion as 
a valuable one. A few weeks afterward I was in 
his room, and he asked me to hear him recite. I 
took a book and heard him repeat page after 
page of Greek primitives, without ostentation, but 
merely, to all appearance, to test himself. 

He did not limit his studies to the curriculum. 
After the first year he read a great deal beyond 
the prescribed course, especially in Cicero, of 
whose works he thus went over several, and took 
up, besides, some of the Greek authors. 

He neglected athletic exercises almost entirely. 
His chief relaxations from study were of a so- 
cial character. He would get half a dozen of the 
students into his room, and, refreshments being 
obtained, would give himself up with them to 
having a " good time." 

In the public exercises of the college he at- 



AN OLD LAWYER SURPRISED. 309 

tracted much attention. If he had an oration to 
deliver, the audience was always eager to hear it, 
and generally was rewarded by a masterly effort. 

As we adopted different professions, he the law, 
and I medicine, I had, much to my regret, few 
opportunities of witnessing the displays of his 
maturer powers. But our personal intimacy was 
very great, and continued through life. 

I had, from the first, no doubt that he would 
strive for, and attain, the foremost rank in his 
profession. When he commenced practice in Sa- 
lem, we had two or three old lawyers, of whom 
Mr. Thorndyke was one. I said to him, "Mr. 
Choate is not in the Superior Court yet (his time 
not having expired in the Common Pleas) ; but I 
know him very well, and he will be at the head of 
the Essex bar as soon as he can get there." The 
old lawyer looked at me with surprise and incre- 
dulity ; but I had the pleasure of hearing him, 
before many years had elapsed, admit the fulfill- 
ment of my prophecy. 

During the earlier years of his practice, he 
sometimes spoke to me of his aspirations, one of 
which was to be one of our chief justices. He 
was offered a judgeship afterward, but never 
could afford to accept. 

His professional income he spent lavishly. He 
gave away a great deal, and neglected, in many 



310 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

instances, to collect or to charge for his services. 
He was careless in payment, too, but never to the 
point of injustice. Having borrowed a sum of 
money when a young man, he retained it for 
many years, always paying interest, though it is 
certain he could have repaid the principal many 
times over if it had been necessary. Finally I, as 
the representative of one of the heirs of the 
lender, had occasion to ask for the money, and it 
was paid at once. When paying the interest, he 
said to me on one occasion, " You have had some 
trouble about this, I will give you your law ; " 
and he did, both advice and service, when needed. 
I had occasion to know much of his benefactions, 
as I was sometimes his almoner. Some instances 
of his generosity I communicated to Mr. Brown, 
when he was preparing his book. 

His love of study lasted through life, and he 
accounted it as one of his chief blessings. In 
speaking to me of his son one day, he held up his 
hand and said, "I would give that finger if it 
would make him love study as I do." 

The humorous side of his character has been, 
to so great an extent, that on which the public 
attention has been hitherto fixed that it needs 
no illustration. But the evenness of his temper 
is worth remarking. He was always agreeable, 
genial, companionable, playful even, toward those 



NOT LIKE OTHER MEN. 311 

with whom he was intimate. I could never be 
long in his company without hearing some en- 
livening pleasantry. 

I do not think Mr. Choate was fitted to be a 
leader in politics. He was constitutionally timid 
and conservative. Given a leader, like Webster, 
he was a useful and zealous supporter. Let him 
have a question to argue, and, if he felt that the 
country was his client, he waxed eloquent and 
sought eagerly for victory. During Webster's 
lifetime he initiated no policy. The latter, on his 
death-bed, told Choate, " You have a great future 
before you if you go with the party and direct 
them." Choate could go with the party — he 
could even go against it ; but the instinct of lead- 
ership was weak in him ; to control the party was 
work to which he was not fitted, an up-hill labor. 

It is exceedingly difficult to describe or to char- 
acterize such a man. He was unlike any other I 
have known. Webster seemed to be a good deal 
like other folks, only there was more of him. 
But Choate was peculiar; — a strange, beautiful 
product of our time, not to be measured by refer- 
ence to ordinary men. 



LETTER FROM EMORY WASHBURN. 



The late Emory Washburn sent me this tribute 
to the memory of Rufus Choate : — 

Dear Sir, — It is with much hesitation and 
misgiving that I enter upon the attempt to com- 
ply with your flattering request to give you some 
of my recollections of Mr. Choate. Aside from 
the difficulty in describing a man of such varied 
and peculiar characteristics and qualities, it is to 
be borne in mind that it is already seventeen 
years since his death, and that, during that time, 
impressions originally strong have been growing 
fainter, and the incidents and events of his life 
becoming less distinctly defined, and that many 
things which were worthy of notice at the time 
they occurred have lost their interest for want of 
surrounding circumstances. All I shall attempt 
will be to recall general impressions rather than 
distinct incidents. 

While I have no right to claim any special in- 
timacy with Mr. Choate, I met him too often, 



HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 313 

after our first meeting in the Legislature of 1825, 
in private and social life, as well as at the bar and 
in the courts and in public assemblies, not to re- 
ceive and retain pretty decided impressions of the 
power and qualities for which he became so widely 
known and admired. He was about four months 
my senior in age. 

In stature Mr. Choate was nearly, if not quite, 
six feet in height, strong and muscular, without 
being in the least gross. His head was finely 
formed, and covered with a profusion of very 
dark, curly hair. His complexion was dark, his 
features regular, his lips thin, and, when his coun- 
tenance was at rest, were generally closely shut, 
giving his mouth an expression of contemplation 
rather than firmness. His eye was dark, was 
mildly piercing, and, at times, had a pensive cast, 
which was in harmony with his whole expression 
when by himself. His movements, without being 
awkward or abrupt, indicated nervous energy 
rather than muscular power. When in company- 
with others, his face assumed as many shades of 
expression as he had changing moods of thought. 
From the quiet rest of deep contemplation it would 
light up by a sudden flash of playful humor, or an 
expression of intense interest, when he gave utter- 
ance to some new or inspiring thought. But al- 
though a ready humor, thus modified, was perhaps 



314 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

one of the most characteristic marks of the ami- 
able temperament for which he was distinguished, 
it never degenerated into boisterous mirth nor 
broke out into laughter. I doubt if any one ever 
heard him laugh aloud, though no one ever had a 
keener sense of the ridiculous, or loved fun more 
heartily. 

While such was the general temperament of 
the man, as he appeared to others in the ordi- 
nary intercourse of society or business, to his 
more intimate friends, as often as leisure or op- 
portunity offered, this playful habit of thought 
and fancy manifested itself in a great variety of 
forms. When in such a mood, it was delightful to 
see him unbend, and give conversation free play. 
He would indulge in such extravagant forms of 
expression, such exaggerated statements, such ab- 
surd opinions, and conclusions so utterly at vari- 
ance with his well-known sentiments, half gravely 
uttered, and yet understood by all, that it was an 
occasion of constant merriment ; in which, with- 
out even descending to drollery, he was often 
carrying on graver discussions, or attacking some 
popular whim or error, mingling wit with logic, 
and fun with graver realities of life. 1 There 
would be no end to the anecdotes illustrative of 

1 It was thus, perhaps in more extravagant forms, with Sydney 
Smith. J- N. 



CHIEF JUSTICE SHAW. 315 

this phase of his mind, if any one had taken the 
pains to preserve them. One has been often re- 
peated, of his opinion of Chief Justice Shaw, for 
whom, by the way, he had a profound veneration 
for his qualities as a judge, and between whom 
and Mr. Choate there was a mutual admiration 
and respect. No man had a kinder nature than 
the Chief Justice, and no man would have sooner 
shrunk from saying or doing anything which 
could wound the sensibilities of another; and as 
for conscious partiality in favor of any one, be- 
cause of his rank or position in society, no man 
even suspected it. But, unfortunately, he had a 
way of expressing his disapproval of what seemed 
to him a fallacy in an argument, or a questionable 
mode of proceeding in a cause, which sounded 
very like reproof, and often gave pain to the 
subject of it, from the manner in which it was 
clone. Nor did Mr. Choate escape. On one 
occasion, after listening with respect to one of 
those rebukes, as he did to everything which fell 
from the Court, Mr. Choate turned to two or 
three of his brethren who had heard it, and 
quietly remarked, with that expression npon his 
countenance which always told the mood he was 
in, " I do not suppose that any one ever thought 
the Chief Justice was much of a lawyer, but 
nobody can deny that he is a man of pleasant 



316 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 



manners." On one occasion he was engaged in a 
very important case in a remote county, when it 
fell to me to hold the term of the court. He 
gave up two days to the preparation before the 
commencement of the term, but found one suf- 
ficient, so that the other day was lost in waiting. 
To one who could not tolerate an idle hour this 
was inexpressibly irksome. I arrived in town in 
due time, and met Mr. Choate at the door of the 
hotel, and was greeted with " I am glad you have 
come at last, for I have been waiting for you just 
fifty thousand years ; " which, considering his im- 
patience in losing time, was hardly an exagger- 
ated expression of his estimate of it. 

In the composition of Mr. Choate's nature, the 
prevailing element was sweetness. Bitterness was 
entirely left out. His spirit, like the action of 
his mind, was quick and easily aroused ; but he 
could not carry anger, nor keep alive a feeling 
of resentment. He had no false pride of opinion, 
and could laugh at his own mistakes as readily as 
others. After witnessing in court, one day, with 
two or three others, the queer rulings of a certain 
judge, who had made himself somewhat conspic- 
uous in his mode of conducting trials, one of them 
turned to him and said, " Let us see, did you not 
join in a petition to have this man appointed ? " 
" Headed it," said Mr. Choate, with the quietest 



SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 317 

possible humor, and went on with his conversa- 
tion. 

In his family no one could be more delightful, 
ministering to the happiness of the circle of which 
he was the special centre, and in which his con- 
versation was full of pleasant humor and profit- 
able instruction. So, in his intercourse with his 
friends, though free from everything like re- 
straint, he never talked without some purpose or 
aim, or without saying something that might be 
remembered. His voice was pleasant and well 
modulated; and, though clear and resonant, never 
loud or harsh, even when excited before a popu- 
lar audience. His command of language was lit- 
erally wonderful. No man had a richer vocabu- 
lary of choice and apt words. He was never at 
a loss for the right form of expression, nor did 
he obscure a vigorous thought by the beautiful 
drapery in which he clothed it. 

In his manner of addressing an audience, es- 
pecially a jury, he made use of a great deal of 
action, but without rant or violent gesticulation. 
He grew animated by the very effort of speaking ; 
every muscle seemed to be brought into play, and 
his whole person gave signs of emotion. The 
perspiration would fall in large drops from his 
hair and run down his face ; which, at times, grew 
pale and haggard while he poured out, in one 



318 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CEO ATE. 

unbroken current, language full of thought, emo- 
tion, or rare illustrations, of which his public ad- 
dresses largely partook. But, though a casual 
listener might be dazzled by the brilliancy of his 
rhetoric and the charm of his eloquence, no one 
who followed his train of thought, when desiring 
to convince his audience of some interesting truth, 
could be more impressed by the beauty of his 
oratory than by the clear statement and logical 
arrangement of his argument, which carried with 
them the conviction of his hearers. One pecul- 
iarity marked his style, whether oral or written, 
and that was the continuous and unbroken train 
of thought upon which he sometimes entered ; 
which, instead of being exhausted by being pur- 
sued to any given extent, seemed to gather new 
exposition and illustration as he proceeded, until 
there seemed no place left at which to arrest it. 
If some important idea or proposition presented 
itself to his mind, it seemed to call up so many 
kindred and associated ideas, and one thought 
came crowding so closely upon another, that there 
was left him no place for pause or suspension, and 
he would go on through an entire page without a 
space for a punctuation mark, beyond an occa- 
sional dash to hold its parts together. 

Whenever he spoke, he played upon his au- 
dience as a master with the tones or harmonies of 



BUSINESS HABITS. 319 

an organ, at one moment delighting them with 
his humor, at another moving them to indignation 
at some unmerited wrong, and touching at an- 
other a shade of delicate sensibility, leading them, 
it might be by a train of profound thought and 
subtile reasoning, to the conclusion which he was 
aiming to reach. And it was not easy, at times, 
to say in which of these exhibitions of moral and 
intellectual power he was most to be admired. 

And yet, when one recalled the grave or even 
sad cast of his countenance when at rest, and re- 
membered the change that came over it as it 
lighted up almost to inspiration when he was deal- 
ing with reasons and the passions of his fellow-men, 
in masses, and saw how he moulded and gave 
form to the opinions of others by the mere force 
of his powers of persuasion, he could not fail to 
perceive that his true strength lay in the region 
of sober dialectics rather than in that of brilliant 
oratory. 

In the management of his own affairs, Mr. 
Choate was careless in charging or collecting 
moneys, while he was generous, almost to a fault, 
in his contributions to the necessities of others. 
But in no way was this readiness to bestow the 
fruits of the labors, by which he earned his liveli- 
hood, more marked than in the frequent devo- 
tion of his time to the preparation or delivery of 



320 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

orations, lectures, and addresses on occasions of 
literary, patriotic, political, and commemorative 
gatherings, for which he could expect no other 
compensation than the consciousness of its being 
a means of directing and controlling the thoughts 
and opinions of others. This constant strain upon 
his mental and physical energies, in connection 
with a frequent recurrence of severe headaches, 
began, at last, to tell upon his constitution as well 
as upon his looks. The lines and furrows of his 
face grew deeper and more visible ; his counte- 
nance began to bear a worried and haggard look, 
except when animated in debate ; and age, while 
it spared the lustre of hair, gave signs of prema- 
ture progress. But whatever he lost of muscular 
activity seemed to be more than made up by an 
added supply of nervous and intellectual energy, 
till both gave way before the approach of the dis- 
ease which terminated his life. His sweetness 
and kindness of manner, however, remained with 
him till the last. 

I can speak of his qualities as a senator only 
from the published accounts of the day. Nor 
would I venture to speak of his scholarship with 
confidence, except from the testimony of others. 
No one, however, could be with him any length 
of time without perceiving his familiarity with 
classic authors and their literature. In his pub- 



NATURAL BENT OR INCLINATION. 321 

lie addresses,, and even in his arguments be- 
fore juries, he not infrequently resorted to quota- 
tions from these authors, when he wished to give 
some happy thought an epigrammatic force. And 
those best capable of judging were unqualified in 
their high appreciation of the extent and accuracy 
of his attainments in classic learning. I remem- 
ber his showing me at his own house, with a kind 
of affectionate pride, a beautiful copy of Cicero, 
and remarking with considerable emphasis that he 
never suffered a day to pass by in which he did 
not read one or more pages in that volume. I 
have no doubt that, if his memory had rested upon 
his attainments as a classical scholar, it would 
have associated his name with some of the first in 
the land ; yet he did not limit himself to the lit- 
erature of the ancients, but was equally thorough 
in that of his own language. 

But the sphere in which Mr. Choate was most 
ambitious to excel, and in which he achieved his 
most signal success, was that of the bar. To that 
he gave his best energies, and in its service he 
wore out the physical powers of a vigorous con- 
stitution. He cultivated the law as a broad and 
liberal science, while, in applying it to the prac- 
tical questions cognizable by the courts, he spared 
neither time nor labor to make it serve the pur- 
pose of equal justice. To this end he applied great 

21 



322 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

quickness of apprehension, patience in research, a 
generous pride in his profession, and an aptitude 
for labor which shrunk from no degree of dili- 
gence or requisite amount of exhaustion. Nor 
were these qualities displayed occasionally only. 
Whether his case was small or large, whether his 
cause was upon the civil or the criminal side of 
the court, whether his client was rich or poor, or 
his fee was a large or a small one, he went into it 
thoroughly prepared, and ready at all points; 
and, when in, he gave to it his whole energy, and 
spared nothing which could insure success. Nor 
were his arguments confined to the details of the 
more technical points of his case ; he made free 
use, at will, of that store of learning and illustra- 
tion which his memory was at all times ready to 
supply. I heard him, on one occasion, address the 
court, when I presided, upon a motion to dismiss 
an indictment, charging embezzlement upon an 
officer of a bank, on the ground that the statute 
prescribing the form of stating the charge, and 
under which the indictment had been drawn, w^as 
ex post facto, it having been passed subsequently 
to the alleged act of embezzlement. It was purely 
a constitutional argument, and the point lay with- 
in a narrow compass. But, for beauty of diction, 
aptness of illustration, and force of reasoning, it 
was one of his best efforts. He dwelt, among 



HIS METHODS. 323 

other things, upon the history of our Constitution, 
and showed how its provisions, many of them at 
least, had their origin in the events of English 
history. He spoke of the Star Chamber, the bills 
of attainder, the progress of English liberty dur- 
ing the Commonwealth and at the Revolution, 
and of the last struggle of prerogative with the 
free spirit of the Constitution in the attainder and 
execution of Sir John Fenwick, and brought these 
all to bear upon the danger, as a precedent, of 
holding a man to answer for a crime under an act 
of legislation passed subsequently to the commis- 
sion of the deed, especially where, as in this case, a 
popular odium had been awakened against him as 
a public officer. 

Nor was his skill in conducting the trial of a 
cause less remarkable than the ability with which 
he presented it, in the end, to the court and jury. 
In the cross-examination of witnesses, he seemed 
to know intuitively how far to pursue it and 
where to stop. He never aroused opposition on 
the part of the witness by attacking him, but dis- 
armed him by the quiet and courteous manner in 
which he pursued his examination. He was quite 
sure, before giving him up, to expose the weak 
parts of his testimony, or the bias, if any, which 
detracted from the confidence to be given it. On 
the other hand, he never allowed himself to ap- 



324 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

pear surprised or disconcerted by anything in the 
way of evidence or argument which might come 
out in the course of a trial, however damaging it 
might seem to the case. To the jury it seemed to 
come as a matter of course, and nothing on his 
part served to give it any special importance. 
Anecdotes of this character were often told of 
him, — one of which I give, as it was told to me, 
to illustrate his coolness and self-possession, as 
well as his adroitness in warding off what he 
could not meet. In giving his testimony, a wit- 
ness for his antagonist let fall, with no particular 
emphasis, a statement of a most important fact, 
from which he saw that inferences greatly dam- 
aging to his client's cause might be drawn, if 
skillfully used. He suffered the witness to go 
through his statement ; and then, as if he saw in 
it something of great value to himself, requested 
him to repeat it carefully, that he might take it 
down correctly. He as carefully avoided cross- 
examining the witness, and in his argument made 
not the least allusion to his testimony. When the 
opposing counsel, in his close, came to that part 
of his case in his argument, he was so impressed 
with the idea that Mr. Choate had discovered that 
there was something in that testimony which 
made in his favor, although he could not see how, 
that he contented himself with merely remarking 



MANNER IN COURT. 325 

that, though Mr. Choate had seemed to think that 
the testimony bore in favor of his client, it seemed 
to him that it went to sustain the opposite side, 
and then he went on with the other parts of his 
case. 

In the trial of his cases, Mr. Choate took full 
notes of the testimony, to which he often seemed 
to refer, though to one who looked on it was dif- 
ficult to see anything there that was legible or 
could be deciphered. His handwriting, at best, 
was a puzzle, little better than hieroglyphics. 
His minutes of testimony were far worse, being 
made up of words and symbols and, now and then, 
a spiral curve longer than the rest, which he 
seemed to be able to read and interpret, though 
no one else would think of attempting it. 

In his manner to the Court, he was always def- 
erential and respectful, even when the judge was 
his junior in years or his inferior in learning or 
ability. Indeed, courtesy, a kindness of manner, 
was a part of his nature, which he uniformly ex- 
hibited in his intercourse with the bar as well as 
with others. 

When he died, therefore, he left no wounds for 
time to heal ; no resentments for injuries un- 
atoned for; and when, with what he might have 
regarded as still many years of brilliant success 
before him, he died at the age of fifty-nine, every 



326 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

one felt there was a void, which no one could fill, 
within the circle in which he had moved ; while to 
such as knew him in the more intimate relations 
of private life it was the loss of a companion, a 
friend endeared by the qualities which men love 
and admire. 

I stop here, not because I have exhausted the 
subject, but because I have found it is not within 
my power to treat it as it ought to be. But you 
asked me " to recall facts, incidents, and events, 
personal, professional, and domestic," and I hope 
you will accept this as an earnest of good inten- 
tions. Yours truly, etc., 

EMORY WASHBURN. 
Judge J. Neilson. 



LETTER FROM E. D. SANBORN. 



Mr. E. D. Sanborn - , professor in Dartmouth Col- 
lege, sends me the following reminiscence of Mr. 
Choate : — 

My acquaintance with Mr. Choate began as 
early as 1831, when I was a student in college. 
He was warmly attached to Hanover, where the 
happiest days of his life were spent in study and 
in teaching. Here, too, he found his wife ; and 
the old home, where the young tutor and the 
beautiful girl who won his heart met to enjoy the 
passing hours and make their plans for coming 
years, was peculiarly dear to him. The late 
Cyrus P. Smith, at the commencement dinner 
of 1875, recited a little incident in the history 
of Mr. Choate's tutorial life. The students knew 
that their teacher often passed some of the small 
hours of the night in Mr. Olcott's parlor. Mr. 
Smith and a few of his associates used to sere- 
nade the young couple occasionally. One night 
they took their stand on the deck of the steeple 



328 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

near the house, whence the whole village could 
hear. In their song they substituted the names 
of the parties for classic names, and made the 
refrain loud and long. In the morning Mr. 
Choate sent for Mr. Smith, whose voice he had 
recognized, and admonished him to select a hum- 
bier stand, and a more seasonable hour for his 
musical exhibitions. Thus ended the farce. 

My first introduction to Mr. Choate was in the 
library of " The United Fraternity." His con- 
versation was of books. He called my attention 
to some good authors for a young man to read. 
Among others he took from its shelf an old folio, 
much worn and defaced, and said that he had 
found great benefit from the careful reading of 
that work. It was Dr. William Chillingworth's 
work, entitled ' " The Religion of Protestants a 
Safe Way to Salvation." Hallam says, " This 
celebrated work, which gained its author the epi- 
thet of immortal, is now, I suspect, little studied, 
even by the clergy." Mr. Choate pronounced the 
author the greatest reasoner, in that age of giants, 
in logic. He said he knew no work to be com- 
pared with it, except "Edwards on the Will." 
He had read Chillingworth with great profit, and 
advised all young men to study it who desired to 
become good logicians. From that time to the 
day of his death, I never met Mr. Choate without 



A MIDNIGHT RECREATION. 329 

gaining instruction from his conversation. His 
discourse was always of lofty themes. 

I once had an opportunity to spend a few hours 
in his library by his invitation. His books were 
the latest and best editions of standard authors. I 
was then interested in the classics. That depart- 
ment of his library I carefully examined. I found 
there the most recent and most approved editions 
of Greek and of Latin authors. I took the books 
from their shelves, one by one, to learn, if pos- 
sible, what use the owner had made of them. In 
some of them I found traces of his study through 
the entire work, in others the leaves had been 
cut, and marginal notes made in one third or 
one half of the work. I happened then to be 
staying at a house opposite that of Mr. Choate. 
I woke about midnight and saw, across the street, 
Mr. Choate standing at a high desk by the win- 
dow, evidently employed in reading. So, after 
the fatigues of the day, he refreshed his mind 
with good books at night. 

Once I was invited to meet his pastor, Rev. Dr. 
Adams, and a few other friends, at dinner. It was 
at the time when Dr. Adams was so severely cen- 
sured for his book called " The Southside View," 
in which he ventured to recite his personal recol- 
lections of some good men at the South. The 
friends of Dr. Adams had held a public meeting 



330 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

to express their confidence and affection for the 
author of that famous book. Mr. Choate made a 
speech, commending his pastor for preaching the 
gospel instead of politics, and remarked that, af- 
ter spending six days in controversy at the bar 
and on the platform, he was rejoiced to have his 
attention called to religion on the seventh. This 
speech gave birth to a new party cry, " The Gospel 
according to Choate," which was as widely printed 
and commented upon as his famous phrase, " glit- 
tering generalities," applied to the Declaration of 
Independence. At the dinner-table, Mr. Choate, 
in a quiet, confiding, deferential tone, called out 
his guests on their own specialties. His twinkling 
eye, pleasant smile, and genial comments made 
the occasion one long to be remembered. 

At the funeral of Daniel Webster, I walked 
with Mr. Choate to the cemetery. He made 
many considerate and thoughtful remarks on Mr. 
Webster's life. He spoke of him with filial sad- 
ness and reverence. Mr. Webster was " his guide, 
counselor, and friend." I felt almost abashed at 
his appeals to me for my opinions, as though T 
could possibly know anything of the great orator 
which he did not know ; but that was his mental 
habit. He made those with whom he conversed 
feel that he regarded them as equals, to whom 
he could often show deference. 



A MOST APPRECIATIVE TRIBUTE. 331 

After multitudes of orators had eulogized the 
deceased statesman, Mr. Choate came to his old 
haunts in Hanover, and in the old church uttered 
his memorable eulogy, — perhaps the most brill- 
iant and appreciative tribute to departed worth 
ever made by mortal man. If any one can 
name a greater, let him " speak, for him have 
I offended." 

Mr. Choate prepared a speech for the Webster 
dinner at Boston, a short time after Mr. Webster's 
death. He was too ill to deliver it ; it was never 
published. Fletcher Webster was permitted to 
read it. One paragraph he copied, and sent to 
me. It was as follows : " Sometimes Mr. Webster 
incurred the lot of all the great, and was traduced 
and misrepresented. Sometimes he was pursued, 
as all central figures in great triumphal proces- 
sions are pursued, as all glory is pursued, by cal- 
umny ; as Demosthenes, the patriotic statesman ; 
as Cicero, the father of his country ; as Grotius, 
the creator of public law ; as Somers and Sidney, 
as Burke, as Grattan, as Hamilton, were traduced. 
Even when he was recently dead, the tears and 
prayers of the whole country did not completely 
silence one robed and reverend backbiter" The 
shade of Theodore Parker, it is hoped, will receive 
with such candor as marked the living man, this 
honest tribute to his ministerial labors. 



332 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Mr. Abbott Lawrence once said to me, at his 
house, that, when he was Minister at the Court of 
St. James, he frequently met eminent lawyers 
who were very desirous of learning everything 
they could about Mr. Webster and Mr. Choate, 
especially their personal appearance, habits, and 
opinions. They questioned him respecting their 
interpretations of great questions of law. Mr. 
Lawrence ventured to propose several of their 
questions to Mr. Choate, and his replies were re- 
ceived with great respect by English lawyers. 

Mr. Choate was religiously educated, and the 
instructions of his parents modified and controlled 
his whole life. Mr. James W. Paige, of Boston, 
informed me that Mr. Webster and Mr. Choate 
often met at his house, where they sometimes 
discoursed of " high and holy themes." One 
evening allusion was made by one of them to 
the custom of committing to memory devotional 
poetry in childhood. Mr. Webster challenged 
Mr. Choate to recite Watts's psalms and hymns 
from memory, to ascertain which could hold out 
longest. They continued the exercise for a full 
hour, till the ladies cried " Hold ! enough ! ' be- 
cause they desired to hear these gentlemen talk 
on other subjects. 

Mr. Choate was once walking, on Commence- 
ment Day, in Hanover, when a lady attempted to 



INCIDENTS. 333 

pass him in the crowd, wearing one of those ele- 
gant shawls whose knotted fringe always catches 
the button of the pew door of country churches, 
when suddenly he found himself caught by the 
button of his coat. He turned and said, " Madam, 
I beg pardon; I should be delighted to go with 
you, but I have an engagement in the opposite 
direction." I remember an amusing incident re- 
cited to me by one of the students, showing how 
much he was absorbed in a case he was studying, 
" totus in Mis" A client was consulting him 
whose name was Stoughton. At that time a pop- 
ular nostrum, called " S tough ton's Bitters," was 
everywhere advertised. Mr. Choate had seen the 
advertisements, and, during all the interview, he 
addressed his client as " Mr. Bitters." 

Yours truly, 

E. D. SANBORN. 



LETTER FROM EDWARD B. GILLETT. 



A distinguished member of the Massachusetts 
bar, residing at Westfield, who was much at the 
bar with Mr. Choate, writes me : — 

My dear Sir, — I take pleasure in trying to 
comply with your request to furnish some per- 
sonal reminiscences of Mr. Choate. Perhaps, by 
way of illustrative notes to your articles, you may 
utilize some of them. 

I called upon Mr. Choate when he was confined 
to his house by a lame knee. He was always in 
his library, surrounded by his five or six thousand 
silent friends, covering the walls of the second 
story of his dwelling on Franklin Street. 

On one occasion I found him before his table 
turning the leaves of Macaulay's History. I in- 
quired if he was revising the judgments recently 
expressed in his lecture upon that subject. He 
replied, No, that he was reading Cowley's poems, 
which always greatly interested him ; that he had 
just discovered in the volume an expression simi- 



COWLEY AND MILTON. 335 

lar to that found in the first book of "Paradise 
Lost," " The height of this great argument/' 
which he thought a fine and extraordinary phrase. 
He had thereupon begged his wife, the gracious 
purveyor to his infirmities, to hand down Macau- 
lay to him that he might detect whether Milton 
had " hooked " from Cowley, or Cowley from Mil- 
ton. " But," said he, " Cowley has got him. It 
is, however, only the equitable thing. Milton had 
a risrht to forage the whole intellectual world in 
the way of reprisal, for his disjecta membra are 
scattered thick through all literature." 

I have in my possession his copy of Cowley's 
works. The pencil marks along the margins of 
pages suggest the remark he once made to me, 
that he " often found a single ' winged word ' as 
suggestive as the most germinant thought." This 
may explain what is said to have been his habit of 
frequent reading and study of the dictionary " by 
the page." 

Upon a mantel in his library, as I now some- 
what indistinctly remember, were placed, at one 
end, a bronze bust or statuette of Demosthenes ; 
at the other end, a similar one of Cicero. Over 
Demosthenes was suspended a small engraving of 
Daniel Webster ; over Cicero an engravine: of Ed- 
ward Everett. Upon my speaking of the appro- 
priateness of the juxtapositions, he drew some par- 



336 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

allels and contrasts between the great orators, and 
in a few minutes said more memorable things, by 
way of characterization, than I have ever heard 
compacted into the same number of sentences. I 
remember that he pronounced Cicero to be " the 
greatest master of speech who had ever lived." 

I was associated with Mr. Choate in the trial of 
a railroad case before a committee of the Massa- 
chusetts Legislature. He was then preparing an 
address upon Macaulay's " History of England," 
to be delivered before the Mercantile Library As- 
sociation in Boston. On the morning of the day 
he was to give his address, he said that it was not 
nearly written. I suggested that he would be 
compelled to extemporize a portion of it. He re- 
plied that he would " cut out " from the hearing 
and go into an adjoining lobby and write while 
the witnesses were being examined in chief, if I 
would call him so that he could be present at the 
cross-examination. This arrangement was carried 
out, and it was wonderful to note how intuitively 
and instantly he gathered the scope of the direct 
testimony given in his absence. On one occasion, 
I followed him almost instantly from the commit- 
tee room to the lobby, and found him already 
writing at the top of his speed. He said that his 
only way of making preparation for such occasions 
was to postpone it until the last possible moment, 



WOMEN AS WITNESSES. 337 

and then work toils virions ; that he had been al- 
ready writing since three and a half o'clock that 
morning. 

Mr. Choate, on one occasion, came into the court- 
room of the District Court in Boston, while I was 
trying a case before a jury. He was accompanied 
by Mr. B. R. Curtis, their object being to discuss 
before Judge Sprague, then presiding, some inter- 
locutory motion during the recess. Mr. Choate 
drew his chair to my side, and placed his hand on 
my shoulder in that magnetic way of friendly 
confidence which did so much to endear him to 
younger members of the profession. He then in- 
quired with a sort of comical eagerness, " Pray tell 
me whose witnesses are all these women ? " I an- 
swered, " Part are mine and part are the plain- 
tiff's." Then he said, " Pray tell me which side 
has the majority ? " I said that I had. He replied, 
" I will give you my word the case is yours. But 
now," said he with humorous solemnity, " let me 
give you my dying advice, — never cross-examine 
a woman. It is of no use. They cannot disinte- 
grate the story they have once told ; they cannot 
eliminate the part that is for you from that which 
is against you. They can neither combine nor 
shade nor qualify. They go for the whole thing, 
and the moment you begin to cross-examine one 

of them, instead of being bitten by a single rattle- 

22 



338 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

snake, you are bitten by a whole barrel full. I 
never, excepting in a case absolutely desperate, 
dare to cross-examine a woman." 

His library was especially rich in ancient clas- 
sics. He pointed out that department to me with 
evident satisfaction ; one shelf was filled by dif- 
ferent editions of the Greek Testament, some in 
elegant modern binding, and others in " old vel- 
lum." I alluded to this. He then said, " You re- 
call a visit I once received in my room from Mr. 
Webster, when I was Senator at Washington, en- 
deavoring to impose upon the people of this Com- 
monwealth the delusion that I was an eminent 
statesman. I saw Mr. Webster's wonderful black 
eyes peering over my books, as if in search, and 
asked him what he would please to have. He 
turned to me with one of his smiles, such as never 
transfigured the face of any other man or of any 
woman, and said, "I observe, brother Choate, 
that you are true to your instincts in Washington, 
as at home, — seven editions of the Greek Testa- 
ment, but not a copy of the Constitution." 

You cannot, my dear sir, fail to see that I 
have written very hurriedly; but, as you have 
the choice both of excision and exclusion, I do 
not hesitate to send you my meagre materials. 
I beg leave to thank you that you are willing 
to freshen our memory of that wonderful man, 



PROFITABLE COMPANY. 339 

whose profound and precise learning as a lawyer 
was hardly surpassed by his marvelous genius for 
advocacy, but who was nowhere more delightful 
or amusing than in private conversation. Carlyle 
is right when he tells us that " Great men, taken 
in any way, are profitable company." 

With very great respect, 

EDWARD B. GILLETT. 
To Judge Neilson. 



LETTER FROM HON. NATHAN CROSBY. 



The Hon. Nathan Crosby, one of Mr. Choate's 
early friends, who has been for more than thirty 
years in judicial service, writes the following let- 
ter. The reader will think it natural, as well as 
fortunate, that old college friends, in writing 
about Mr. Choate, should recur to those early 
days. 

A short time before the death of the Rev. Jo- 
seph Tracy, D. D., he had written an article on 
the religious character of Mr. Choate, intended 
for publication in some religious magazine. But 
the article was not given to the public. Judge 
Crosby has been kind enough to obtain it from 
the family or representatives of the writer and 
send it to me. 

After stating the fact that much had been writ- 
ten about Mr. Choate, and suggesting that much 
yet remained to be written, Dr. Tracy asks, " But 
what have the orthodox reviewers to do with 
Rufus Choate?" and answers, "Much, on many 
accounts. In all the religious or ecclesiastical re- 



IN COLLEGE WITH CHOATE. 341 

lations which he sustained, he was one of us. He 
was educated from his earliest infancy in our 
faith. He studied it, understood it, was convinced 
of its truth, avowed and defended it on what he 
deemed proper occasions, public or private, to the 
end of his life." 

He proceeds to illustrate that view by refer- 
ences to Mr. Choate's example, opinions, and ad- 
dresses, making special use of his remarks on the 
occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Dr. 
Adams's pastorate of the Essex Street Church, in 
which — the last public address ever made by Mr. 
Choate — he avowed his faith in the doctrines 
there taught. 

My dear Judge, — Mr. Choate was one year 
before me in college. When I entered, he had 
already acquired the reputation of leader of his 
class. My earliest personal knowledge of him was 
obtained through two of his rivaling classmates, 
Heydock and Tracy, who had been with me in 
Salisbury Academy. Mr. Choate came to Han- 
over at an opportune period, as, in fact, we all 
did. The college difficulties had just divided the 
old residents into two partisan, though quite un- 
equal, bodies, both of which changed the former 
limited courtesies extended to students into open 
blandishments and friendly alliances. President 



342 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Brown was young and enthusiastic, and desirous 
not only that the students should acquit them- 
selves well as scholars, but that they should be 
kindly received and should make friends for them- 
selves and the institution in the village, and so 
carry with them to their homes good accounts of 
the college and the people. Mr. Choate found 
an old and valuable friend in Dr. Mussey, the 
head of the medical school. Dr. Mussey had 
practiced in Essex during the childhood of Mr. 
Choate, and had boarded in his father's family. 
Upon being appointed to a professorship, he had 
given up his practice to Dr. Sewall, who after- 
ward married Mr. Choate's sister, and first taught 
Latin to Rufus. 

He was fortunate, therefore, in his surround- 
ings at Hanover, but more fortunate in his eager- 
ness to learn and his aptitude for study. His 
ambition, which we saw in his acts and habits, ap- 
pears now, by confession, as it were, in the letters 
of his college life, recently furnished by your cor- 
respondent, the Rev. Dr. Putnam. The amenities 
of the people and the absence of rowdyism on the 
part of the students were alike notable during 
President Brown's administration ; and many who 
were there at this period, besides Mr. Choate, owe 
much to the graceful influences of the cultured 
ladies of their early acquaintance. 



HIS HABITS. 343 

Mr. Choate was sociable as well as studious, but 
did not care for play. He found exercise in walks 
over the hills around the college, and up and 
down his room while pursuing his studies. His 
most frequent out-door companion was his class- 
mate Tenney, who furnished a ready laugh to 
Choate's equally ready wit. Tenney was a jolly, 
light-hearted youth, well suited to clear the cob- 
webs from an overworked brain, and as such, 
doubtless, he ministered, perhaps unconsciously, 
but none the less beneficially, to his friend. 
Choate's room was of ready access to his mates, 
and was a sort of centre of mirth and wit; but 
when sport was over he turned to his studies 
with avidity. He possessed a wonderful power of 
concentration, and studied with great intensity. 
I roomed near him for a year, and could appreci- 
ate this somewhat, as he studied very much aloud, 
making his voice and ear and his gestures, too, 
probably contribute each its power of impression 
upon the memory. He dropped into study read- 
ily as a habit, and thus, at brief intervals, doubt- 
less, through life, added much to his stores of 
knowledge. We boarded together for a while at 
Professor Adams's ; and when in the dining-room, 
before the bell called us to take our seats at the 
table, Mr. Choate would stand at the sideboard, 
where lay a large reference Bible, and turn over 



344 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CEO ATE. 

the leaves from place to place, as if tracing out 
some chain of theological inquiry. 

Mr. Choate by ardent, if frequently interrupted, 
labor became the ideal scholar and the pride of 
the college. No one had ever more completely 
won the admiration of the faculty, of his fellow- 
students, and of the people of Hanover. Not a 
lisp of irregularity, of incivility, or neglect was 
heard against him from any quarter. But toward 
the close of his college life he became an invalid, 
was emaciated, walked feebly, his place in the 
recitation-room was often vacant, his condition a 
source of anxiety and alarm. Dr. Mussey took 
him to his house, and watched over him by day 
and by night. At length the appointments for 
Commencement were made, and Mr. Choate was 
set clown for the valedictory. Great fears were 
entertained that he might be unable to participate 
in the exercises. As the day drew near, the lead- 
ing topic of inquiry and discussion was his condi- 
tion, — the last report from his chamber the most 
important news ; — and old graduates, as they 
arrived from day to day to participate in the 
proceedings, came to share in the anxiety, and 
feared that they might not hear him whom they 
perceived to be so universally admired and be- 
loved. The day came at length, and with it un- 
certain reports intensifying the anxiety, and cast- 



HIS VALEDICTORY. 345 

ing doubt not only on the probability of his ap- 
pearance on the platform, but as to the duration 
of his life. The procession was formed without 
him, and moved to the church, amid general 
gloom, for the public exercises. The place was 
crowded ; the graduating class responded to the 
orders of the day clown to the valedictory. Then 
a few moments of hushed suspense, and Mr. 
Choate was called. He advanced slowly and fee- 
bly, as if struggling to live and to perform this as 
a last scholarly duty. Tall and emaciated, closely 
wrapped in his black gown, with his black, curly 
hair overshadowing his sallow features, he trem- 
blingly saluted the trustees and officers of the col- 
lege, and proceeded in tremulous and subdued 
tones with his address, which was full of beautiful 
thoughts, couched in chaste and elegant language. 
When he came to say the words of parting to his 
classmates, his heart poured forth treasures of 
affectionate remembrance, closing with swelling 
fervor and inimitable power as he exhorted them 
not to slacken or misapply their intellectual ener- 
gies and tastes, but to press on to the highest 
attainments in the domain of learning. " The 
world from this day and place opens wide before 
you. You are here and now to drop the power 
and aid of the association and emulation of our 
happy days, and strike, single-handed and alone, 



346 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

into the manly struggles of life. You may sow 
and reap in whatever field or realm you choose, 
and gather the glorious rewards of intellectual 
culture of pure minds and diligent hands. Go, go 
forward, my classmates, with all your honors and 
all your hopes. You will leave me behind, lin- 
gering or cut short in my way ; but I shall carry 
to my grave, however, wherever, whenever I shall 
be called hence, the delightful remembrance of 
our joys and of our love." I can only give a faint 
and imperfect impression of his loving words ; but 
my memory of the scene is fresh and vivid. The 
great congregation, from admiration, excitement, 
and grief, found relief in a flood of tears. 

Mr. Choate remained in Hanover one year as 
tutor, and was the central figure of a set of lin- 
guists then connected with the college. James 
Marsh and George Bush, distinguished scholars, 
just before him ; George P. Marsh and Folsom, of 
my class ; and Washington Choate, brother of Ru- 
fus, Perley, and Williston, two classes next after 
mine, gave an impulse to the study and love of 
classical literature unknown before or since in 
that college. Friendly emulation and student 
pride led to the daily canvassing of books pub- 
lished, authors read, and works studied. Folsom, 
W. Choate, and Williston died early ; the other 
scholars named became eminent men. Washing- 



COMPETITION IN SCHOLARSHIP. 347 

ton Clioate was regarded as equal to his brother 
in scholarship, and was eminent for his piety. I 
allude to this era of classical study as an exhibi- 
tion of Mr. Choate's literary influence 

Mr. Choate had great respect and love for his 
Alma Mater, and contributed from his early pro- 
fessional income toward her support, as well as 
to influence her advancing curriculum ; but was 
greatly disquieted, and even vexed, when declared 
rank in scholarship was abolished. He believed 
in laudable ambition and honorable competition. 
The old Puritan school-house system of rising from 
the foot to the head of the class stirred the little 
scholar with an ambition which grew with his 
years, and which he thought should not be ignored 
or repudiated in higher fields of study. He held 
that a great principle of human action was in- 
vaded by neglecting to rank scholarship ; that life 
is largely made up of struggles for superiority in 
mental and physical efforts ; that its rewards are 
won by merit ; that the diligent, exact scholar 
should receive his merited honors; and that the 
idle or stupid should not be protected from the 
exposure of misspent time and opportunity. His 
own life was spent in incessant, honorable compe- 
tition and legitimate reward. 

For several years from 1826 I practiced law in 
Essex County at the same courts with Mr. Choate ; 



348 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

and from 1838 for a few years I lived in Boston, 
kept up my acquaintance with him, and knew 
quite well his habits. He died daily, retiring to 
bed exhausted, under great nervous prostration, 
with headache. Yet he would rise early, often 
long before daylight, and take a literary breakfast 
before his family or business claimed his atten- 
tion. His clients, the courts, and classics com- 
pelled long days and short nights. I called upon 
him once in the afternoon, and asked him how 
early the next morning I could confer with him 
upon a matter I wished to investigate during the 
evening. '* As early as you please, sir ; I shall 
be up." " Do you mean before breakfast, Mr. 
Choate ? " " Before light if you wish." I called 
at the earliest dawn, and found him at his stand- 
ing table, with a shade over his eyes, under a brill- 
iant light, pressing forward some treatise upon 
Greek literature, which he said he hoped to live 
long enough to give to the public. The night 
had restored his wearied powers ; he was elastic, 
as cheery and brilliant as the stars I had left 
shining above us. 

Seeing and hearing Mr. Choate in the trial of 
causes was a perpetual surprise and pleasure. It 
seemed to make little difference with him whether 
his cause was of great or small importance ; he 
tried to win it if possible, and ceased not to con- 



DECLINES JUDICIAL HONORS. 349 

test it until every consideration favorable to his 
own side and every one inimical to his adversary 
had been presented. 

It has already been mentioned that Mr. Choate 
was offered a seat upon the bench of the Supreme 
Court of Massachusetts, but declined. It may be 
proper for me to add that in view of his health, 
and the arduous nature of his professional exer- 
tions, I pressed him to seek the higher honor of 
a seat upon the bench of the United States Su- 
preme Court, and so escape the waste of his pow- 
ers in the excitements of the advocate, and attain 
the more quiet and dignified life of the bench. 
Judge Woodbury's seat was at the time vacant, 
and I believed he could secure the appointment. 
He was then fifty years of age, and in the highest 
sense eligible. " But," said he, " I am too poor. 
I must remain as I am, live or die. I know my 
power and reputation in my profession, and I love 
it, but I do not know what the change would 
bring upon me, or whether I should like it. I 
cannot leave my profession." He survived only 
eight years. 

He spent his money well for his family and his 
library, gave freely to the necessitous, and gave 
liberally of his well-earned fees when full pay- 
ment might have embarrassed his client. On one 
occasion, I was in his office when a client asked for 



350 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

his bill for a written opinion upon a question of 
importance. Said Mr. Choate, " Hand me one 
hundred dollars, and I will give you a receipt in 
full ; if you go to my partner in the other room, 
who keeps the books, he will make you pay one 
hundred and fifty, sure." 

Mr. Choate, like Webster and Everett, was an 
old Whig politically, and " to the manner born ; " 
but toward the close of his life party lines under- 
went rapid changes, and men were very uncere- 
moniously laid upon the shelf who were not 
thought to keep up with the " march of improve- 
ment." Mr. Webster lost the nomination for the 
presidency, and soon after died at Marshfield; 
and, although the nation honored his obsequies 
with every token of mourning, Mr. Choate could 
not smother his indignation toward the rising ele- 
ments of power. The great expounder and states- 
man had been rejected through unworthy combi- 
nations. His chief, worthy of all homage and 
confidence, leader of the Whig party, and the 
supporter of its glory for twenty years, had been 
slaughtered in the house of his friends. 

Mr. Choate's horror of new combinations and 
platforms drove him to Buchanan. " I can go no- 
where else," said he to me, when I had a long in- 
terview with him in regard to his purpose. " But, 
Mr. Choate, what becomes of your long cherished 



POLITICAL PRINCIPLES. 351 

Whig principles ? ' ; " Whig principles ! I go to 
the Democrats to find them. They have assumed 
our principles, one after another, till there is little 
difference between us." Here he traced them one 
after another as they had found adoption. " And 
what becomes of your Whig anti-slavery opin- 
ions ? " "I have settled that matter," said he, " I 
am bound to seek the greatest amount of moral 
good for the human race. I am to take things as 
I find them, and work according to my best judg- 
ment for the greatest good of the greatest num- 
ber, and I do not believe it is the greatest good 
to the slave or the free that four million of slaves 
should be turned loose in all their ignorance, pov- 
erty, and degradation, to trust to luck for a home 
and a living." He amplified somewhat this state- 
ment, but the above represents fairly the conclu- 
sions of his argument. Mr. Choate's problem, 
how to accomplish the greatest good for the great- 
est number, has been worked out on a different 
plan from that which he wished to see adopted. 
The war, the death lists, pollution of morals, de- 
struction of prosperity, national debt, present con- 
dition and future destiny of the colored race, and 
sectional discords are present elements in the 
scales testing Mr. Choate's sagacity. Happy for 
us if we can find advantages to counterbalance 
them. Yours truly, 

NATHAN CROSBY. 



LETTER FROM HON. HENRY K. OLIVER. 



The Hon. Henry K. Oliver, a student at Dart- 
mouth College when young Choate was there, 
writes as follows : — 

Mayor's Office, City of Salem, Mass., 

August 24, 1877. 

Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 26th of July 
brings vividly to my mind's eye 

The face, the form, the man so true, — 

of my beloved college friend, the late Rufus 
Choate. Your note so quickened my mind's eye 
that it again sees his manly and attractive figure 
and strangely winning face ; — and my mind's ear 
that it again hears his deeply-resonant, sweet- 
toned, and impressive voice, wakening in me 
many a reminiscence of his gentleness of temper 
and disposition, his warm sympathies, his innate 
sense of right, his refined courtesy, his love of all 
that was beautiful in life, his attractiveness of 
person and manner, his memory, his thoroughness 
as a scholar, and his excellence in all that makes 
a good and great man. 



FROM HARVARD TO DARTMOUTH. 353 

My first acquaintance with him dates from the 
month of August, 1816, when, he then beginning 
his Sophomore year, I joined the Junior class at 
Dartmouth College. I had passed my first two 
years at Harvard, entering in 1814, a youngling 
not quite fourteen years of age ; when my father, 
a Calvinist of the severer type, becoming uneasy 
at the alleged tendency of Harvard toward Unita- 
rianism, and probably feeling the pressure of the 
greater expense thereat, transferred me to Han- 
over. I relinquished my old associations at Har- 
vard with deepest regret, but the transplanted 
roots after a while found genial soil, and began to 
feed from the new earth. A few weeks domiciled 
me among my new associates, while the excite- 
ment attending the existence at Hanover, at one 
and the same time, of a " Dartmouth College " 
with its corps of teachers and some one hundred 
and forty students, and a ''Dartmouth Univer- 
sity " with its duet of teachers and its corporal's 
guard of students, helped me to think less of 
home and more of surroundings and duty, and I 
gradually settled down to my work. 

Of those whose active kindness helped to lift 
me out of my slough of despond, I recall none 
with more earnest gratitude than him of whom I 
write, at whose room, in the house of Professor 
Ebenezer Adams, I was a frequent visitor. 

23 



354 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

He was about a year older than myself, but of 
an almost incredible maturity of mind. Being 
from my own State and county, he encouraged 
me by considerate and timely sympathy, and stim- 
ulated me, as he did all of us, by his pertinac- 
ity in study and success in his work. Yet such 
was the simplicity of his character, his freedom of 
intercourse with us all, his genial outflow in com- 
panionship, — "medicines that he gave us to make 
us love him," — that each of us, delighted with 
him as a man, and charmed by him as a scholar, 
was at all times ready to exclaim, like the shep- 
herd in Virgil's Eclogue, — 

" Non equidem invideo, miror magis!" 

A passage describing Cicero has often come 
to my mind when I have thought of Choate, — 
" Quum eas arles diseeret, quibus cetas puerilis so- 
let ad humanitatem informari, ingenium ejus ita il- 
luxit, ut eum cequales e schold redeuntes, medium, 
tanquam regem circumstantes, domum deducerent ; 
imo, eorum parentes pueri fama commoti in ludum 
litterarium ventitabant ut eum viserenl" We looked 
upon him as facile jwinceps, no man in any of 
the classes being even named with him in point 
of scholarship. In fact we did not count him at 
all in rating scholarship, but set him apart and 
above us all, " himself his only parallel." 

His method of study seemed to the rest of us to 



APPEARANCE AT STUDY. 355 

have crystallized into an abiding habit, definite in 
manner and determinate in purpose. I have often 
seen him in the act of delving at his books. His 
large and well-shaped head usually rested upon 
his hands, his elbows upon the table, his fingers 
running through the profuse growth of his dark, 
curly hair. His eyes also were dark, with a 
mild yet penetrating look, always suggestive of 
sadness, as were the features of his expressive 
face, which enchained one's attention by its very 
pensiveness, in marked contrast, not seldom, with 
many a playful utterance, which flashed out with 
no effervescence of laughter, or uproar of bois- 
terous merriment. 

There was a custom, in our day, of assigning, 
on each alternate Wednesday, subjects to two or 
three members of the Senior and Junior classes, 
the essays on which were to be read in chapel on 
the next Wednesday fortnight. These readings 
were open to the public, and ordinarily there was 
plenty of room. But when it was Choate's turn 
to read, the chapel was crowded, the gentlemen, 
ladies, and even the youth of the village flocking 
to hear the brilliant essayist, led thither by his 
grasp of the subject, his eloquent diction, and 
his beautiful imagery. At times, and always at 
the appropriate time, his sense of humor, uncon- 
sciously operative, perhaps, lighted up his features 



356 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

with an infectious smile as he set forth some ab- 
surdity in a manner so luminous and palpable that 
the air of the chapel would undulate with the soft 
murmuring of restrained merriment. And yet no 
man was more tender in feeling, or had in him 
less of the spirit of ridicule, or more of charity 
and good-will to all mankind. If the phrase be 
permissible, his humor was characterized by a 
stately dignity, which, while fitting the occasion, 
most felicitously illustrated his intent, and had 
nothing in it of harshness. It lacerated no one's 
feelings, provoked no fretful retort. He was 
wholly free from any self-complacent conscious- 
ness of superiority in talent or acquirement over 
his college mates, — so free that I doubt whether 
he himself thought any such superiority existed, 
manifest though it was to all the rest of us. But 
neither in college nor in after-life, so far as I 
know, did he give token of any such cognition. 
To us, his companionship was a constant benedic- 
tion, and we sought his society as we would seek 
a haven of repose and comfort. 

His influence, both personal and as a scholar, 
was operative with every member of the seven 
classes that enjoyed college life with him, — an 
influence that, feeble in his earlier college life, 
assumed, before the end of the first year, a power 
and a reach far beyond that of any other mem- 



INFLUENCE IN COLLEGE. 357 

ber of the college. His preparation had been a 
little imperfect, and he did not, therefore, give us 
at first the real impress of what he was. But hav- 
ing once taken root, and feeling the power and 
strength of the wider instruction, he grew with 
marvelous rapidity. His facility at concentrating 
his mind upon any given subject, and acquiring 
all that was to be learned about it, was without 
parallel, and in every department of study rap- 
idly put him far in advance of his fellows. The 
general standard of scholarship among us received 
from him a positive and most noticeable elevation. 
This influence was felt among officials and under- 
graduates, and it began to be realized that the 
old rule of the arithmetics, that " more required 
more," was making men work harder and with 
more will, and that a decidedly new departure 
had been taken, never to be retraced. And yet 
the hindrances that in our time impeded both 
teachers and taught were most perplexing and 
discouraging. President Wheelock and the board 
of trustees had got by the ears, the issue of the 
contest bringing him to grief and to deposition 
from office. A new president, Rev. Francis Brown, 
was elected, and time was required for him to get 
well into harness, and to make the college feel the 
healthful influence which he afterwards so admi- 
rably and efficiently exerted. Never was college 



358 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

official more beloved and revered. The rival in- 
stitution, created by the State legislature, had 
been duly inaugurated, had been put into pos- 
session of the college seal, and the college library 
was its only building and chapel. We lads had 
looked out for the two libraries of the college 
societies, — the " Fraternity " and the " Social 
Friends," — and had safely removed them from 
the college buildings to private quarters ; so that 
when Professors Dean and Carter of the uni- 
versity, with a horde of village roughs, knowing 
nothing of such removal, broke into the library 
room of the " Social Friends," the members of 
the " Fraternity," then in session, hearing the 
crash of axes and crowbars, rushed to the rescue, 
and made prisoners of the whole crowd, sending 
home the ignobile vulgus, but imprisoning Dean 
and Carter until they pledged their honor that 
they would " never do so again." They were 
then escorted to their homes, each by a trio of 
collegians. Neither name of these professors, nor 
. that of Allen, president of the new university, will 
be found in the " Triennial Government Catalogue 
of Dartmouth," they being unrecognized inter- 
lopers. In fact, the whole creation of the uni- 
versity was a political fraud, " a thing of shreds 
and patches," which, at the bidding of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, after Webster's 



DISTURBING ELEMENTS. 359 

great argument, like an " insubstantial pageant 
faded," leaving " not a wrack behind." But it 
was a disturbing element for a time, and could 
not but occupy our thoughts and conversation, 
and unfavorably affect our study. 

I remember well the poverty of our illustrative 
apparatus, and the ingenious devices to which Pro- 
fessor Adams was compelled to resort to supple- 
ment it. Not seldom was he constrained to leave 
to our imagination the practical demonstration 
of some principle in natural philosophy. So, too, 
were we without the college library, which, though 
then small, had, nevertheless, many valuable books 
of reference that would greatly have helped us 
through many a difficult passage in our classics. 
As for recitation-rooms and a chapel, we got them 
in the village wherever we could. The whole 
situation was a tangle of embarrassments ; and if 
there ever was an actual " pursuit of knowledge 
under difficulties," it was at Dartmouth College, 
— 1815-1818, — when Choate was an undergrad- 
uate. 

But the extraordinary state of affairs itself, 
the sympathy of the college instructors with the 
struggling and loyal students, and the sympathy 
of the students with the faithful and self-sacri- 
ficing teachers generated a spirit of earnest and 
successful industry; and I have always believed 



360 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

that the good order, the thoughtful fidelity to 
work, and the unbroken friendship between the 
teachers and the taught, supplemented by the 
strong religious influence which then pervaded 
the institution, were all ministrations which 
helped to turn evil into good for us all. Our 
successors at the college can never realize the 
weight of the troubles that embarrassed us, or 
the joy we felt when those troubles passed away. 
May they, in her prosperity, be as faithful to her 
as were we in her deep adversity. 

But to return : I graduated in 1818, leaving 
Choate behind me. He graduated in 1819, with 
the valedictory, — an address which exhibited to 
the full his eminent scholarship, his profound 
thought, the breadth and extent of his reading, 
his comprehensive grasp of fact and power of 
statement, and the magnetism of his oratory. 

He served afterward a single year as tutor, and 
then commenced a course of study at the Law 
School at Cambridge, continuing it in the ofhce, 
at Washington, of Mr. Wirt, Attorney-General of 
the United States. His fidelity in study, and his 
purity of life, when an undergraduate, character- 
ized him while preparing for his profession. I 
lost sight of him mainly during these years, hav- 
ing nryself entered upon the work of a teacher 
in the public Latin School of this city. He, how- 



FAITHFUL IN SMALL THINGS. 361 

ever, reappeared in our neighborhood, opening 
his office in Danvers, that portion of the town 
now called Peabody, practically a suburb of 
Salem. Here he laid the foundation of his fu- 
ture success, .by a faithfulness in small things 
which proved his fitness to be intrusted with 
the conduct of greater. I met him but occa- 
sionally, yet always received from him the same 
genial recognition that had so often made me 
happy in college ; and I have always considered 
it, and shall continue to consider it, as one of 
the highest happinesses of a not short life, that 
I was permitted for so many years to enjoy the 
friendship of so good, so pure, so noble a man as 
Rufus Choate. 

Very truly yours, 

HENRY K. OLIVER. 



LETTER FROM WILLIAM W. STORY, LL. D. 



I am indebted to William W. Story, LL. D., ju- 
rist, author, and now sculptor at Rome, for the 
following letter : — 

My deae Sir, — I beg you to accept my thanks 
for the two volumes, one containing the orations 
and addresses of Mr. Choate, and the other his life 
by Mr. Brown. These, as well as the articles in 
the " Albany Law Journal," which you were so 
kind as to send me, I have read with great inter- 
est and pleasure. 

I wish it were in my power, as it certainly is in 
my good will, to furnish you, as you request, with 
any reminiscences of Mr. Choate which could be 
of interest either to his family and friends or 
to the public. But, unfortunately, I was never 
brought into any intimate relation with him ; and 
such was the difference of our ages and positions 
during the period that I had the pleasure of 
knowing him, that I had few opportunities of 
coming into close personal contact with him, and, 



HUMOR AND CONVERSATION. 363 

for the most part, only surveyed him at a dis- 
tance, as one darkly groping his way on the out- 
skirts of the profession of the law looks up to a 
great and dazzling reputation already in its zenith, 
and drawing to it the eyes of all. 

My first personal acquaintance with him was 
while I was studying law in the office of Mr. 
Charles Sumner and Mr. George Stillman Hillard. 
His office was in the same building, and occasion- 
ally he would come in either to consult upon 
some professional question, or, what was more fre- 
quent, to relax his mind in wide excursions with 
them in the varied fields of literature, to wander 
into classic regions, to discuss critical questions, to 
dissect characters, persons, or authors, and, in a 
word, to talk " de omnibus rebus et quibusdam 
aliis." At these interviews I played the part of a 
listener, and better talk it would have been diffi- 
cult to hear. His conversation, stimulated, as it 
was, by such companions as Hillard and Sumner, 
who were always ready to turn aside from the 
arid paths of the law into any " primrose path of 
dalliance," and who were both capable and willing 
to explore with him the wide regions of universal 
literature, was eminently interesting, and, haud 
passibus cequis, I followed as they led, drawn by 
a special charm. His conversation was sometimes 
grave and critical, with many an allusion and 



364 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

quotation from classic authors ; sometimes philo- 
sophical, with discussions of theories and doctrines 
of politics, life, and thought ; sometimes grimly 
humorous, with trenchant strokes of characteriza- 
tion and finesse of anatomizing. His humor was 
very peculiar, and often consisted of a new, orig- 
inal, and quite unexpected epithet ; as, for in- 
stance, when he spoke of a likeness as being 
"flagrant;' or of a sly, sudden, and complete re- 
versal of what he had previously seemed gravely 
to assert. As an instance of this latter peculiar- 
ity, I remember that once, when the conversation 
happened to turn upon a person whose manners 
and bearing were peculiarly distasteful, he gravely 
said, as if in deprecation of the criticism of oth- 
ers, " He is a person whom I myself should have 
no objection to meet" — and then, after a slight 
pause, added — " in a procession." 

His love of epithets was remarkable, and the 
richness of his vocabulary so great that often it 
might be said of him, as it was of Shakespeare, 
that he needed somewhat to be restrained. But 
many as were the adjectives that he habitually 
used, they were never idly strung together with- 
out definiteness and distinction of meaning. As 
he added one to another, each seemed a new and 
calculated stroke to the characterization, and, as it 
were, a compressed sentence in itself. He had 



ALLITERATIVE STYLE. 365 

carefully studied the English language in its best 
authors, and was a master of its finer distinctions 
of expression ; and overwhelming at times as were 
his adjectives, they were never hurriedly snatched 
at to fill a gap, but, on the contrary, were care- 
fully selected, and with a purpose to strengthen, 
enlarge, or make precise his full meaning, culmi- 
nating often in one of peculiar significance. On 
public occasions, as he uttered them, one after 
another, slowly and distinctly, and weighing on 
each, he lifted himself higher and higher, rising 
on tiptoe, his voice also rising with ever stronger 
and higher emphasis, until he came to the last 
word, and then he suddenly settled down upon 
his heels with a downward sway of the body, and, 
dropping his voice to a low inflection, flung it, as 
it were, almost carelessly down. It was like a 
wave that gathers and accumulates and heaves 
upward to its fullness of height and then bursts 
and falls exhausted on the beach. 

In illustration of his highly, alliterative style 
and fondness for piling epithets one upon another, 
may be instanced the question he addressed to the 
jury in his well-known defense of Albert Tirrell 
against the charge of murder. If not absolutely 
true in fact, it is at least eminently character- 
istic of his manner — "What," he cried out, 
" must at such a moment have been the feelings 



366 MEMORIES OP RUFUS CHOATE. 

of this fond, foolish, fickle-fated, and infatuated 
Albert, when," etc. Possibly this sentence was, 
to some extent, invented or enlarged afterwards ; 
but it was evidently founded on fact. Nothing 
could be more characteristic than that, after the 
first word " fond," he should immediately have 
added " foolish," as if he remembered the old 
meaning of the word, and translated it into mod- 
ern English. Each word is intensified beyond its 
predecessor, and each illustrates the view of Tir- 
rell's mind which he desired to impress upon the 

jury. 

In this connection may be told the mot of Mr. 
Justice Wilde, which, as far as I know, has not 
been recorded in print. This acute and able 
judge was somewhat dry and precise in his style 
and manner, and, in most respects, the complete 
opposite of Mr. Choate. On one occasion, just 
before the opening of the court, when Mr. Choate 
was to argue a case, a member of the bar asked 
the Judge if he had heard that Mr. Worcester had 
just published a new edition of his dictionary, 
with a great number of additional words. " No," 
he answered, " I have not heard of it. But for 
God's sake don't tell Choate." 

No one would have relished this joke more than 
Mr. Choate himself, and I think he would have 
admitted that Judge Wilde had made a good 



FULLNESS OF MIND. 367 

point, where he was vulnerable. But, after all, 
it was not in the mind of the learned Judge or 
of any other person, to desire to retrench that 
wonderful richness of language which the oreat 
advocate used with such masterly ability and elo- 
quence. It was the fullness of his mind, the fine- 
ness of his fastidiousness, the extent of his culture 
that begot the peculiarities of his utterance. In 
his speeches, as in his writings, this double desire 
of limitation and exposition, combined with his 
large range of active and imaginative thought, 
led him often to overflow his banks with a prodi- 
gal stream which disdained the boundaries of sim- 
ple periods. His sentences refuse to come to a 
conclusion. A new illustration or variation or de- 
velopment, limitation or side light strikes him 
before he can come to a pause, and carries him 
away with it; and, with parenthetical involve- 
ments, excursions beyond the direct line, inclu- 
sions of suspected objections which he is eager to 
anticipate, or imaginative illustrations and memo- 
ries that will not be refused, he sweeps an undu- 
lating train of lengthening clauses along, ana- 
conda-like in its movement, yet strong of grasp 
as are the anaconda's folds, until his sentence has 
grown into a paragraph. But, despite this singu- 
lar involvement of style, there is no want of clear- 
ness either of thought or of expression ; each part 



368 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

is knotted to the rest by vertebral articulation. 
They are all portions of one whole living thing. 

His wonderful power over a jury was not the 
result of his eloquence, impetuous and often over- 
whelming as it was, so much as of his subtlety of 
logic, his acuteness of analysis, his eminent faculty 
of marshalling facts and incidents in a new and 
unexpected sequence and relation, so as to cast a 
doubt on what seemed clear before, or to throw 
a new light on what was previously obscure, his 
finesse at forcing, so to speak, his view, his imag- 
inative elucidations by hypothetical suppositions 
and ingenious explanations of apparently simple 
events, and his penetration of character which en- 
abled him to seize the weak points of witnesses and 
parties, and to draw into his confidence the jury. 

He was in the habit of treating the jury with 
assumed deference and politeness, and often se- 
lected one among them to appeal to significantly, 
as if he were the sagacious person who really saw 
and appreciated the point he was enforcing. At 
times he would stop in full career, and say some- 
thing to this effect, " But it is useless to urge this 
further. I see by the intelligent eye of the fore- 
man that he has thoroughly comprehended the 
extreme force of this view." Then, again, he had 
great readiness of parry as well as of assault, and 
never was surprised so as to lose his guard or at- 



METHODS AT THE BAR. 369 

tack, or to be unready for a replique. He was also 
wary and acute in the examination of witnesses, 
and so bland in his manner as to hide the point of 
his question. He never lost his temper, was uni- 
formly courteous and urbane to his opponents and 
to the Bench, though he often concealed beneath 
this urbanity the keenest irony of criticism and 
argument. While submitting to the ruling of the 
Bench, he had the art to elude its consequences 
and diminish its importance. He was never head- 
strong, single-viewed, or obstinate to one absolute 
course. If he could not make a breach on one 
side, he changed his tactics and made an assault 
on another. But, besides and beyond all this, he 
entered into the facts of a case in an imaginative 
spirit, creating new possibilities of explanation, 
new theories of action, throwing subordinate inci- 
dents into strong light and color, giving positive 
value to what was negative, and casting promi- 
nent incidents into shade, treacling with sure and 
balanced step along a line of attack or defense as 
narrow as " the unsteadfast footing of a spear." 

His extraordinary defense of Tirrell will, I 
think, fully justify, in itself, all that I have said 
of hhh as an advocate before a jury. 

In liis arguments of law to the Court, where 
the arts he used in jury cases were of little avail, 
he showed himself to be a master of close logical 

24 



370 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

reasoning, of acute powers of comparison and dis- 
crimination, as well as of clear and persuasive ar- 
gument. His guard was close, his rapidity and 
subtlety of fence remarkable, his points keen and 
well directed. 

His personal appearance was remarkable. I 
think no one could come into his presence with- 
out being impressed by it. His broad, massive 
forehead was crowned with a dark mass of richly 
curling, fine, and almost turbulent hair, through 
which he constantly passed his hand, and beneath 
his overhanging brow were dark, deeply-sunken, 
and somewhat weary eyes of serious intent and 
expression, framed in dark circles. His nose was 
rather large, his upper lip short; and his under 
lip, projecting somewhat beyond, he constantly 
thrust out as if to grasp and hold it firm ; while a 
strong jaw closed and locked up, as it were, the 
whole face with purpose and power. His cheeks 
were gaunt and hollow, as if worn by study. In- 
deed, the whole face was that of a thinker and 
student, which long hours of labor by day and 
night had made haggard. There was seriousness, 
gravity, and a certain pathos of character and 
sadness of experience in its repose. In its lighter 
moods, it was illumined by genial gleams of humor 
and the summer lightning of feeling, and in mo- 
ments of excitement it glowed and radiated with 



ABSTRACTED BEARING. 371 

inward fire like a forge when the bellows are in 
blast. His frame was large, well knit, and ner- 
vous. His ordinary gait in walking, as I remem- 
ber him, was inclined to be slouching, as of a 
person engaged in introverted thought; and, in 
sitting, it was sunken and overweighed, as it were, 
into itself. When speaking in public, he was full 
of action and nervous gesticulation. He swayed 
backward and forward, advancing and retreating, 
emphasized by coming sharply down on his heels, 
now bending down, and now lifting himself to his 
full and commanding height, and enforcing his 
utterance with a sharp, impulsive, upward ges- 
ture. 

I had a great admiration for him, not only on 
account of his power as an advocate, of his emi- 
nence as a public man, of his genial nature, hu- 
mor, sensibility, and accomplishment in letters, 
but, beyond all this, for a certain somewhat, mys- 
terious and poetic, which always seemed to me to 
haunt him, and which lay below all his outer show 
of character. There was something in his silent 
eyes, in his often abstracted and involved bear- 
ing, in the gloom and wan expression of his face, 
which seemed to hide an inner life, fed from secret 
springs, and given to far aspirations and longings 
outside the public and ordinary routine of the life 
he seemed to lead. This may have been all vision- 



372 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

ary on my part, but I cannot refrain from stat- 
ing this singular impression which he gave me. 
What he had missed, what he wanted, I cannot 
say ; nor can I say that he had missed or wanted 
anything, except as we all miss and want some- 
thing which is denied us, indefinite, unexplained, 
perhaps, but not the less desired. Still, it always 
seemed to me, from what I saw of him nearly, 
that he had another life, behind and beneath this 
that we knew, " of purer ether, of diviner air," 
perhaps of disappointment around which a mys- 
tery hovered. I give my impression for what it is 
worth. It is quite possible that it is but a mere 
unsubstantial fabric built by my own imagination 
in dreamland. 

But to return to facts. He brought scholarship 
into his profession, and this gave a certain grace, 
refinement, and happiness to all intercourse with 
him. Sternly as he trod the dusty and thorny 
path of the law, he snatched many an interval to 
wander into the fields of Arcadia and there make 
friends with the spirits of old, and drink of the 
ancient springs of philosophy, poetry, history, and 
ethics, as well as of the more modern " wells of 
English undefiled." The fine edge of his intellect 
was sharpened by constant attrition with the great 
minds of the past, and the secret sources of feeling 
kept fresh by their poetic and enlarging influ- 



HIS CONVERSATION. 373 

ences. His conversation was enriched with allu- 
sion and quotation from many an author; and 
many a flower, gathered in their gardens, gave 
fragrance and color to dry legal argument. You 
knew where he had been by the odor which ever 
clung to his commonest daily life. He was not a 
mere lawyer, nor did he deem it necessary to con- 
fine himself exclusively to the tread-mill of profes- 
sional business. He was capable of severe and 
prolonged work, and few men have ever labored 
with more earnest zeal. The Law is a jealous 
mistress, and makes heavy demands on all who 
would win her prizes as he did. But she is apt to 
suck the blood of her too assiduous devotees, and 
leave them at last dry, rigid, and sapless. Ear- 
nest as Mr. Choate was in his duty to her, he did 
not forget that there are other fields of study be- 
yond hers, to which she did not deny him en- 
trance, and from which he brought back many a 
fragrant flower to wreathe about her careworn 
brow and enliven her dusty courts. 

But it is time for me to stop. I did not mean 
to w r rite an essay on Mr. Choate's genius, and 
you see that I can add little to what has already 
been said by others, and nothing that is worthy 
of publication. I regret extremely that I can 
find in my memory only these vague general im- 
pressions, and these few straws and chips of per- 



374 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

sonal reminiscence, which are of no value save as 
a record of my admiration for one of the greatest 
advocates that ever adorned our own or any other 
country. I have the honor to be, 

Yours most faithfully, 

W. W. STORY. 
Honorable Chief Justice Neilson. 



LETTER FROM HON. GEORGE P. MARSH. 



Hon. George P. Marsh, the distingished phi- 
lologist, author of works upon the English lan- 
guage, and for many years United States Minister 
to Italy, had the courtesy to send me the follow- 
ing. It was mailed at Rome a few weeks before 
his death. 

My dear Sir, — The advent of the usual crowd 
of strangers and the business demands of the com- 
mencement of another year have occupied me so 
constantly that I have not found time to thank 
you for your very interesting letter and for Mr. 
Brown's life of Choate, which I had, indeed, seen 
but had never had an opportunity of perusing. 

I first knew Mr. Choate as a member of the 
Sophomore class at Dartmouth College in the au- 
tumn of 1816, when he already towered far above 
all our co-disciples, and held the same preeminence 
over those who came in contact with him which 
he retained through the changes of his after life. 
At that time scholarship, not power or influence, 



376 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

was his aim, and it was not until some years later 
that he thought of the bar as a desirable career. 
He was then engaged in reading Cicero's works, 
which, with such editions and such critical helps 
(e. g. the dictionaries of Schrevelius and Ains- 
worth) as most American scholars could then com- 
mand, was a Herculean task, and I think the study 
of Cicero's orations taught him the value of am- 
plification, or of abundant collateral illustrations, 
in oratory. This was a feature of his eloquence 
in which he excelled all other men, though I 
think his picturesque allusions were oftener poetic 
reminiscences than fruits of the actual observation 
of nature. As I was then fresh from the woods, 
where my boyish hours were chiefly spent, I 
observed his want of sympathy with trees and 
shrubs and rivers and rocks and mountains and 
plains, as quasi living and sentient beings, and 
this was the only defect I could discover in his 
mental organization. Having been born and bred 
in the interior of what was then popularly called 
The New State, I had enjoyed but a single mo- 
mentary glimpse of the sea, and I did not at first 
perceive that the ocean occupied with Choate the 
place which the solid earth, with its thousand 
forms and myriad products, organic and inorganic, 
held with me; but with Mr. Dana, the distin- 
guished author of " Two Years before the Mast," 



CRITICISMS OF CONTEMPORARIES. 377 

he was more expansive on this subject, and, as I 
learn from that gentleman, showed the greatest 
interest in nautical matters and in naval history. 
When I was in Congress (1843-49), I often 
talked with him about these things, but I found 
little response to my enthusiasm for Nature, and 
little interest in her material laws. 

Choate habitually spoke freely of his profes- 
sional allies and opponents, but his criticisms on 
them were generally favorable. Of Mr. Webster, 
whose method was in some respects the opposite 
of his own, he always spoke w T ith the profoundest 
admiration, and I remember to have heard him 
mention Webster's astonishing power of concen- 
trating his argument on a single point, to the sup- 
port of which the many points which would have 
been taken by other lawyers were made subser- 
vient and auxiliary, not independent. He had a 
very exalted opinion of Jeremiah Mason, whose 
manner was equally opposite to his own, but in 
quite another direction, and he more than once 
said to m,e that he did not believe that any man 
ever practiced the English law more ably than 
Mason. Speaking of a celebrated lawyer who 
was censured for the excessive severity of his 
cross-examination, Choate said, " He defends him- 
self by saying that he is never hard upon a wit- 
ness unless he believes the witness to be lying. I 



378 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

think," added Choate, " that is true; but he has 
a way of making the witness lie by his very man- 
ner of examining him." Webster often consulted 
Choate in the preparation of his Congressional 
speeches, and particularly with reference to the 
quotations which he wished to introduce into 
them ; and Mr. Choate sometimes did me the 
honor to confer with me on these points. On one 
occasion, I remember he asked me if I could fur- 
nish him with the original source of an expression 
which in a later age became proverbial : Spartam 
quam habes hanc orna. Being myself at a loss, I 
referred him to Mr. John Pennington of Philadel- 
phia, who helped us out. 

I was much interested in your remarks on 
Choate's vocabulary. His study of the English 
language was unceasing, and I think he spoke no 
other, sacrificing foreign languages to his mother 
tongue, although he read some Continental lan- 
guages with sufficient facility for ordinary literary 
purposes. I should, from general recollection, 
have estimated his wealth of words higher than 
you find it. It interested me particularly from 
some shallow and ignorant criticisms on my lec- 
tures on the English language by a speaker who 
said he had made a careful estimate of his own 
habitual vocabulary, and found it to reach 30,000 
words ; and yet the critic did not know the philo- 



VOCABULARY. 379 

logical meaning of the term word and confounded 
derivations from a root with inflections of a stem. 
I never met any other man with such a knowl- 
edge and command of all the resources of English 
as had Mr. Choate, and he had the rare gift of 
using words so that each made those with which 
it was connected bring out the best, or at least 
some special, meaning. He told me that he habit- 
ually read the dictionary, and, speaking of his 
translation of a part of Thucydides and other 
classics, he said he undertook the work for the 
sake of the English, not for Greek. Though Mr. 
Choate read Greek and Latin with facility and 
pleasure, and had a fair acquaintance with the 
literature of more than one Continental nation, 
yet he did not share in the fashionable American 
craze about the pursuit of foreign languages, and 
held that for an English-speaking person the Eng- 
lish tongue was worth all others. I remember 
that he once found me reading Scarron, and in- 
quired sharply how I found time for reading such 
trash. I answered that I had only a very indif- 
ferent French dictionary, and that I was studying 
Scarron for the sake of the vocabulary. " You 
may find old words enough," he replied, " in 
French authors fit to be read." 

The critical adage, " Manner is matter," was 
never more forcibly exemplified than by Choate, 



380 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

who would give wonderful effect both to the 
grave and the gay, by mere manner. He would 
use, sparingly indeed, but most effectively, popu- 
lar cant words and phrases. For example, in a 
conversation on the subject of New York politics, 
he spoke of a conspicuous editor as having squa- 
boshed; and of another, who had absconded, as 
having swartwouted. The first of these occurs in 
a letter printed by Mr. Brown. Such words, how- 
ever, he seldom used except in jocular conversa- 
tion. On the contrary, in his public addresses to 
popular audiences he was very choice in his lan- 
guage, and often even stunned the jury by words 
of " learned length and thundering sound." In 
defending an action for crim. con., referring to 
some testimony of a character very damaging to 
his clients, he said, " Well, suppose they did in- 
dulge in some innocent toying, by way of miti- 
gating the asperities of hay-making ! ' This was 
said in a tone of perfect seriousness, and did not 
startle, but rather confounded, the jury he was ad- 
dressing. Webster said of this rhetorical move- 
ment, " Choate is the only man in the world who 
could have thus said that" He sometimes took 
great liberties with the jury. On one occasion, 
observing by the manner of a juryman that he 
was hostile to his client, he caught the man's eye, 
and, pointing directly towards him, said, " I will 



A CHRISTIAN. 381 

make this point plain — I will make it plain even 
to you, sir." The juryman quailed, and finally 
agreed to the verdict desired by Mr. Choate. I 
once heard him say to a lady, in introducing her 
to a new member of Congress, " He is the most 
learned man in the House — I mean of his age — 
1 am two years older." This was not much to 
say, but the manner was altogether irresistible. 

Mr. Choate was from boyhood a serious thinker, 
and a believer in the truth of Christianity, though 
I do not know that he ever became a member of 
any particular church. But the extreme sensi- 
tiveness, so characteristic of him, often led him to 
parry playfully any attempt on the part of the 
over-zealous to draw him into conversation on re- 
ligious subjects. A prominent Christian gentle- 
man was once making an earnest effort in that 
way, and he prefaced his remarks by referring to 
a recent instance of gross depravity, adding, " Ah ! 
Mr. Choate, this is a very sinful world ! ' " Yes, 
it is," replied Mr. Choate, " and they say it will 
all burn up some day — what do you think ? ' 
accompanying his answer with an irresistibly lu- 
dicrous expression of countenance ; the conversa- 
tion ending with a hearty laugh on both sides. 

I should say that one of Choate's most remark- 
able traits of character was his unresting, unflag- 
ging industry, coupled with a readiness to make 



382 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

any and every sacrifice of his own likings or en- 
joyment to the one great object of securing the 
highest position in his profession. This was with 
him no vulgar ambition, but simply a love of, and 
a desire for, perfection. I am not able to add 
more at this time. 

I am, my dear sir, very truly yours, 

GEO. P. MARSH. 
To Ch. J. Neilson. 



LETTER FROM HON. JOHN WINSLOW. 



"It is a mistake to suppose that the man of genius is ever a 
fountain of self-generating energy ; whosoever expends much in 
productive activity must take in much by appropriation ; — whence 
comes what of truth is in the observation that genius is a genius 
for industry." — Maudsley. 

My opportunities for observing Rufus Choate 
were chiefly when residing, in early life, in the 
vicinity of Boston. I saw and heard him on vari- 
ous public occasions in my youth, early manhood, 
and when a student at Cambridge Law School. 

So much has been well said in estimation of 
Choate's genius and attainments that I do not 
feel like adding a word in that direction, except 
to say that his efforts on political and forensic 
occasions profoundly impressed me with a sense 
of his masterly attainments, his extraordinary 
powers, and wonderful genius. To speak of his 
genius as wonderful may, to one who never 
saw the man, appear extravagant ; but it always 
seemed to me that his genius, as seen through his 
public efforts, was wonderful in a very special 



384 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

sense. Besides his liberal attainments as a scholar 
and a lawyer, and his great natural abilities, he 
seemed to have an added quality which few have, 
which stimulated his faculties to most vigorous 
and effective action. Sometimes this stimulating 
quality is called electricity, which, in our day of 
scientific progress, is a word implying, more than 
ever, large force, and, in a measure, unrevealed 
power and possibilities. In referring to Choate, 
one writer says, " When addressing a jury, his 
whole frame was charged with electricity, and lit- 
erally quivered with emotion." Another speaks of 
" his electric bursts of humor." 

A cool-headed lawyer, who heard Choate's fa- 
mous address before the New England Society of 
New York, in 1843, says, " It came upon the au- 
dience like a series of electric shocks." Another 
well-known writer speaks of Choate's "magnetic 
individuality." We thus find Choate reminding 
observers of electricity, electric bursts, electric 
shocks, and magnetic batteries generally. 

We are beginning to feel that it is not easy to 
limit what may be done with electricity. When 
Franklin drew it from the sky on a kite-string, it 
was thought marvelous. Since that day we have 
seen it guided in the storm, used in medicine, and 
become the obedient servant of man, who sends 
his message by means of it around the world. 



SCIENCE IN DISGUISE. 385 

In later time it comes as a means of brilliant 
light, and has been proposed, though not suc- 
cessfully, as a means, through nice adjustments, 
to relieve, as was hoped, an afflicted nation, by 
informing it of the locus of the dreaded bullet in 
the body of our late beloved President. Edison 
and kindred spirits are at work developing the 
capacities of the telephone by the phonograph; 
and an Electrical Congress was lately in session in 
Paris, where, among many wonders, was exhibited 
an electric railway and a microtasimeter, which is 
so delicate that it will measure the calorific rays 
emitted by the fixed stars. What will come of 
these things who can tell ? 

"We hear accounts of the late discovery by M. 
Faure, who has invented an accumulator of elec- 
tricity, a sort of storage arrangement, the possible 
uses of which may not be limited to medicine and 
to the arts, but may touch some new and impor- 
tant problems. 

So, in the case of Mr. Choate, I feel like insist- 
ing that in some mysterious way he anticipated 
M. Faure, and was, in fact, an accumulator and 
storehouse of that subtile force or source of en- 
ergy we call electricity, which surcharged his 
brain and every nerve to an extraordinary de- 
gree, and so helped him, with striking effect, to 
display his masterly genius. 



25 



386 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Some have claimed that the " eager and nip- 
ping air" of New England, especially in the re- 
gion of Boston, has unusual vitalizing power in 
stimulating nerve and brain. However this may 
be, or to what extent the sensitive temperament 
of Choate may have been affected by it, must be 
left to conjecture. 

To see Choate in one of his imaginative nights, 
or when making an impassioned appeal in his best 
strength for client or party, was a privilege to be 
long and gratefully remembered. 

When referring to criticisms by lawyers and 
others of Choate's elocution and style, Mr. Web- 
ster said, " There is no man in the world besides 
Choate who could succeed with that style. It is 
his own. It is peculiar to him. It is as natural 
to him as any constitutional trait about him. No- 
body can imitate him. He imitates nobody, and 
his style is most effective." 

Choate was a diligent student. Great and brill- 
iant as were his talents, his success was largely 
due to his profound and constant studies. Some 
one has said his genius was mainly " science in 
disguise." If by this is meant that his culture 
was large, unremitting, and generous, from which 
he drew effectively in his forensic and other 
public performances, it is true. 

My first remembrance of Choate in politics was 



POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS. 387 

in the memorable campaign of 1840, when the 
prevailing cry was " Tippecanoe and Tyler too." 
The canvass was very spirited, and, as the result 
showed, quite one-sided. A notable Whig meet- 
ing, showing the temper and spirit of the cam- 
paign, was held at Bunker Hill, in September. 
The gathering of people was tremendous, and 
their enthusiasm immense. There was a proces- 
sion four miles long, in which were large delega- 
tions from various States, with many banners. I 
remember one delegation of several hundred men 
from Louisiana. This delegation, on its march 
in the afternoon back to Boston, encountered a 
drenching rain-storm, and one of the men, per- 
haps a printer, extemporized a banner to suit 
the occasion, upon which were quickly printed 
the words, "Any rain but the reign of Matty 
Van Buren." There were on the rostrum at 
Bunker Hill many leading men, and Webster, 
who was the principal orator, spoke in ponder- 
ous majesty. Choate spoke in the evening in 
Boston, and was received with great favor and 
applause. He was all aglow, full of fire and 
action such as no other man did or could ex- 
hibit. Catching the spirit of the occasion, as he 
stood there addressing the people with a mind 
freighted with serious thought, and occasionally 
making some apt reference to Bunker Hill and its 



388 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

patriotic associations, it was evident that Choate 
was then and there the favorite orator, at least of 
New England, if not of the whole country. 

Referring to another political occasion, I re- 
member to have heard Choate at Concord, in 1844, 
on the fourth clay of July, when there was a large 
gathering brought together to espouse the elec- 
tion of Henry Clay. Webster and Berrien and 
Winthrop and Greeley and Lawrence were there. 
Choate was in good condition, and hopeful of 
victory. He referred to South Carolina, with 
tremulous gesture, as the " Palmetto State," and, 
with regretful feeling, alluded to her career as a 
nullifier of the tariff laws in Jackson's term. He 
advocated a protective tariff, and wanted to know, 
in his effective manner, whether the Free Traders 
would carry their doctrine so far as to make us de- 
pendent upon foreign nations for the gunpowder 
we might have to use in our defense against for- 
eign aggression. Among other speakers, Horace 
Greeley followed Choate, under the big tent. I 
remember Greeley's white pants, somewhat col- 
ored by green grass, also his peculiar voice and 
intonation, and manner generally. He com- 
menced and continued in a quiet, thoughtful 
way, but as one who had something worth say- 
ing to the people. He was listened to atten- 
tively, as he deserved to be. 



TOWN GOVERNMENT. 389 

Probably no two speakers could be more unlike 
in style, manner, and action, than Horace Greeley 
and Ruf us. Choate. 

I heard Choate again on an occasion not politi- 
cal. It was when he delivered his famous lecture 
on the Sea, before a literary association in a large 
hall. He seemed full of his wild subject, and 
swayed the audience with eloquence, as the storm 
sways the sea. The impression left upon me by 
this performance is as if I had listened to a breezy, 
reverent poem, descriptive of the mighty power of 
the sea, and what may be encountered there in 
calm or in storm. His manner was very impres- 
sive. The tone of the discourse was in the main 
serious, and in the spirit of Bryant, who says, — 

" The sea is mighty, but a mightier sways 
His restless billows." 

All regret that the manuscript of this thrilling lec- 
ture was lost. 

I heard Choate as*ain on a winter evening; in 
1851, on a very quiet and undemonstrative occa- 
sion. The place was the Massachusetts Senate 
Chamber, and his audience a Senate committee 
and a few others. The special topic was a pro- 
posed separation of West Roxbury from Roxbury, 
which would create a new town government. 
Choate was retained to support the measure, and, 
small in number as was the audience, he found in 



390 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

his topic enough to arouse his enthusiasm. He 
made an eloquent plea for towns and town gov- 
ernments, and the usefulness and glory thereof. 
He insisted that they are important factors in ed- 
ucational growth, especially in what pertains to 
state and national interests, and that their contin- 
uance was essential to the welfare of the country. 
In this argument, Choate, as was his habit, treated 
his subject as thoroughly and eloquently as if ad- 
dressing a large audience. 

In the year 1847, when the breach was more 
apparent than before in Massachusetts between 
the Conscience and the Cotton Whigs, the for- 
mer had hopes that both Choate and Webster 
would soon become identified with them. In this 
chapter of political history, there was a memorable 
day in Faneuil Hall, in September, when I was 
present as a spectator, and which may properly be 
referred to here, as illustrative of the political at- 
mosphere of the period. The Whig State Conven- 
tion was in session, and many leading men of both 
sides were there. The contest was, as to the plat- 
form, whether it should be conservative or of an 
anti-slavery type. Before it was reported, Sum- 
ner made a speech of great power and eloquence 
in favor of aggressive action against the usurpa- 
tion of the slave power. In his speech he made 
a graceful and forcible appeal to Mr. Webster, and 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 391 

said, " Dedicate, sir, the golden years of experi- 
ence which are yet in store for you to removing 
from your country its greatest evil. In this 
cause you shall find inspirations to eloquence 
higher than any you have yet confessed." Win- 
throp was then called out, and made an able reply. 
There were two reports on the platform, as was 
expected. Speeches were made by Stevenson, 
Stephen C. Phillips, Linus Child, Charles Francis 
Adams, and Charles Allen. The debate was able, 
attended by much excitement, and lasted until 
night. The conservatives became alarmed, and 
decided to send for Webster. Abbott Lawrence, 
who was a member of the convention, soon ap- 
peared, with Webster upon his arm, amid tremen- 
dous applause. Both Conscience and Cotton 
joined in manifestations of respect. As Webster 
reached the rostrum, the applause was renewed 
with great vigor, and the whole scene was grand 
and inspiring. Webster took his seat, and listened 
to Charles Allen, one of the ablest of the Con- 
science men, who resumed and finished a stern 
and inflexible speech. Webster then arose, the 
convention rising with him, and in a short ad- 
dress made a plea of great power for harmony. 
A friend tells me that Sumner said he knew, when 
he saw " Black Dan " coming, it was all up with 
his side that year. It was in this speech that 



392 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Webster's famous words were uttered which have 
been so widely quoted. He had been speaking of 
his warm attachment to the Whig party, and how 
he loved to inhale its " odor of liberty." Then 
followed the memorable words spoken in his 
grandest and most impressive manner. " Others," 
he said, " rely on other foundations and other 
hopes for the welfare of the country ; but, for my 
part, in the dark and troubled night that is on us, 
I see no star above the horizon promising light to 
guide us, but the intelligent, patriotic, united 
Whig party of the United States." At this mo- 
ment every look and gesture of the orator were in 
harmony with his thought. He seemed to speak 
as if standing in a dark background, his lustrous 
eyes looking above the horizon for the star that 
should give the promised light to guide the con- 
vention and the people. The power of the speech 
and the spectacle was seen and felt in the fact 
that a convention of turbulent men, at once sub- 
dued, were ready for adjournment without fur- 
ther strife. 

I heard Choate on several political occasions in 
Faneuil Hall, some of which are memorable. It 
will be remembered that Webster delivered his 
famous, and, according to his opponents of that 
day, infamous, 7th of March speech in the Senate, 
in 1850, the tone of which was compromise with 



FANEUIL HALL REFUSED. 393 

the South for the sake of peace and the Union. 
Choate was in full sympathy with Webster, as 
may be seen in his political speeches of that pe- 
riod. In April, 1851, Webster, who was on a short 
visit to Marshfield, was invited by many citizens 
of Boston to a public reception in Faneuil Hall. 
Mr. Choate was to address him for the citizens. 
Great indignation was aroused by the refusal of 
the mayor and aldermen to allow the use of the 
hall for the proposed meeting. The reason given 
was that Wendell Phillips and the Abolitionists 
having been refused the use of the hall for fear 
of a riot, they could not consistently grant the 
hall to any one else. Webster and his friends, 
particularly Choate, were very indignant. A good 
many things were said and done to set the matter 
right. Choate was very active, and wished Mr. 
Webster to know that the action of the city au- 
thorities did not represent the citizens or the best 
sentiment of Boston. Choate sent friends to 
Marshfield to so assure Mr. Webster, among whom 
were Peter Harvey and Fletcher Webster, the lat- 
ter taking a letter from Choate. Webster said 
sadly to Harvey, " Fletcher came down and mere- 
ly told me the bald fact that the city government 
had refused the hall, and brought me a note from 
Choate which I could not read. By the way, tell 
Mr. Choate to write better ; his handwriting is 



394 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

barbarous. I could not read a single word. 
There is the letter ; just look at it ; tell Choate to 
go to a writing-school, and take a quarter's les- 
sons." Webster finally wrote a letter, which was 
much admired by his friends, to the committee 
who invited him, in which he said, " I shall defer 
my visit to Faneuil Hall, the cradle of American 
liberty, until its doors shall fly open on golden 
hinges to lovers of Union as well as lovers of 
Libekty." 

In the next year, on a spring afternoon, " When 
the May sun sheds an amber light," Webster ap- 
peared in Faneuil Hall at a kindly reception ten- 
dered him by citizens of both parties. This was 
soon after his carriage accident. He was quite 
unwell, and much affected by the exhibition of 
general kindness and respect. How well I re- 
member his appearance when he thundered, " This 
is Faneuil Hall — Open." 

In the year 1850, and soon after, many large 
union meetings, so-called, were held in various 
parts of the country in support of the compromise 
measures of 1850. There were several held in 
Faneuil Hall, where such men as Webster, Choate, 
Curtis, Winthrop, and Ashman addressed the peo- 
ple. I was present at one in November of 1851, 
I think, when Hon. B. R. Curtis, then an emi- 
nent member of the Boston bar, and afterwards 



ARGYLL'S THEORY. 395 

Judge of the United States Supreme Court, and 
Choate spoke. The hall was closely packed by 
intelligent men standing, and there was much 
excitement. Curtis, who presided, led off in a 
calm, logical speech, and Choate followed. I shall 
attempt no statement of what he said. It was a 
fervent appeal to the country, especially to the 
North, to stand by the Union in the spirit of sac- 
rifice and concession. In the course of his ar- 
gument, the views of men like Charles Francis 
Adams, Henry Wilson, and Charles Sumner, who 
were then at the front of the anti-slavery hosts, 
got some hard knocks. I was sitting very near 
Choate, on the side of the famous rostrum, and 
shall not forget one of his gestures. He had 
reached in high heat the climax of his speech, 
when, under great excitement, almost frenzy, 
upon emphasizing his final point, he quickly bent 
forward and downward so that his curling hair 
nearly touched the floor. In an instant he was 
erect again, his whole appearance intensely ner- 
vous and magnetic, and drew from the vast au- 
dience round after round of applause, and cheers. 

The Duke of Argyll, in his treatise on " The 
Reign of Law," presents a view which may in 
some measure explain Mr. Choate in action as an 
orator : — 

" When, through the motor nerves, the will 



396 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

orders the muscles into action, that order is en- 
forced by a discharge of the electric force, and 
upon this discharge, the contractile force is set 
free to act, and does accordingly produce the con- 
traction which is desired. Such is, at least, one 
suggestion as to the means employed to place 
human action under the control of the human 
will, in that material frame which is so wonder- 
fully and fearfully made. And whether this hy- 
pothesis be accurate or not, it is certain that some 
such adjustment of Force to Mechanism is in- 
volved in every bodily movement which is subject 
to the will." Whether all or any of this is appli- 
cable to, or accounts for, the appearance of Mr. 
Choate in action, in court, or on the rostrum, is 
the question submitted. 

If " every bodily movement " of the great ora- 
tor, " subject to the will," can thus be explained, 
he at least was probably innocent of all knowl- 
edge of the law that " through the motor nerves 
the will orders the muscles into action," " by a 
discharge of the electric force," in the manner 
stated. 

In July of 1851, Choate delivered an oration 
before the Story Association of Cambridge Law 
School, of whose graduating class I was a member. 
A procession was formed, which marched to the 
church where the address was delivered. My 



OPIUM AGAINST ELECTRICITY. 397 

place in the procession happened to be next to the 
orator. As showing of what flimsy stuff history is 
sometimes made, I may in this connection give an 
incident. There was more or less vague hinting 
that the great orator was occasionally addicted to 
the use of opium. Some were inclined to explain 
his nervous action and great excitement, when 
speaking, by the opium theory. As the proces- 
sion was waiting for its march, Choate took from 
his vest pocket some small particle and put it into 
his mouth. " Do you see that," whispered a by- 
stander, " Choate is getting ready for his speech ; 
he has just taken some opium." As a matter 
of fact, the remark of the wiseacre would have 
been as just if made of the Kev. Obadiah Smith, 
or some other solemn personage who by chance 
might have attracted attention in a similar way. 
Rather than encourage the opium scandal, I pre- 
ferred to rest my theory upon electricity, or Bos- 
ton east wind, as the motive power that inspired 
the great orator as no other man of the time was 
inspired. 

The topic of the oration in the church was obe- 
dience and respect for law as essential for the 
maintenance of the Union, which is to be preferred 
beyond and above all things else as a means of 
political salvation for the country. He made an 
elaborate and eloquent appeal to the young men 



398 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

of the Law School to throw their personal and po- 
litical influence for the conservative side of the 
great conflict which he seemed to feel, almost as 
a prophet, was imminent. His appeal, like Web- 
ster's, was " to lovers of Union as well as to lovers 
of Liberty." 

It was my good fortune to see Choate in court 
engaged in trials on various occasions. It is not 
worth while, perhaps, to state in detail what I 
saw and heard on such occasions. In every case 
he seemed to be absorbed for his client's cause. 
There was no case in his hands, especially before 
a jury, that he did not make a thing of life, and 
of profound interest. 

Many anecdotes and incidents of Choate as a 
lawyer in the courts have been given, some of 
which, I trust, will find a place in this book. I 
happened in court one Saturday, in Boston, when 
Choate had charge of a case that involved some 
improvement in the handling of cotton. In the 
course of a very spirited argument to the jury, 
he took occasion to discuss our agricultural and 
manufacturing resources as cooperative in develop- 
ing the country and promoting general prosperity. 
He made a masterly and interesting statement of 
his view, which was in itself broad statesmanship. 

When he brought forward somnambulism as a 
defense in part for his client, Tirrell, who was in- 



ANECDOTES. 399 

dieted for murder, there were many good women 
and children, not to speak of " the rest of man- 
kind," who thought the defense very absurd, if 
not very wicked. The jury, however, thought 
otherwise. 

I am indebted to a prominent citizen of Brook- 
lyn, a native of Salem, where Choate studied law, 
for the following. Leverett Saltonstall, who was 
an able and noted Massachusetts Federalist, was 
not an admirer of the irrepressible Caleb dishing, 
then a rising man in his region. Cushing, though 
a younger man than Saltonstall, was considered 
his rival, and rumor was afloat to the effect that 
Cushing's wife had written and published in a 
newspaper a very eulogistic article about her hus- 
band, which rumor Saltonstall was willing to be- 
lieve. Choate at this time was a young lawyer in 
Saltonstall's office in Salem. One morning while 
at his desk, S. rushed in excitedly and exclaimed, 
" Cushing is dead and buried, — dead and buried." 
" Dead ! " said Choate — " and buried ! When ? 
where ? " " Dead and buried ! " cried Saltonstall. 
" Well," said Choate, " you don't tell me when he 
died or where he is buried ; but I '11 venture he is 
not buried so deep but what he '11 sprout." 

I am also indebted to a gentleman, now of 
Brooklyn, formerly of Boston, who was a client of 
Choate's, for the following : The client had been 



400 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

consulting Choate in litigations concerning some 
vessels about to arrive at New York. One day 
the client said, " Mr. Choate, the vessels will soon 
arrive in New York, and I am going there to re- 
side. Now, what lawyer do you think of that you 
would advise me to consult in this matter ? " 
" Let me see," said Choate. Then turning to his 
partner, he said, " Crowninshield, what is the 
name of that young lawyer in New York, who did 
so well in defending Monroe Edwards, and had a 
counterfeit $1,000 bill put on him for his fee ?" 
" His name is Evarts," said Crowninshield. " Yes," 
said Choate, " Evarts, he is the man for you. Em- 
ploy him." 

Is not this an instance, in re Evarts, of coming 
events casting their shadows before ? Choate 
must have felt the coming greatness of New 
York's distinguished lawyer. 

A few days previous to Choate's oration before 
the Story Association at Cambridge, to which 
I have referred, Choate was under discussion at 
the Law Library among a group of a dozen stu- 
dents. The conversation turned chiefly upon the 
comparative merits of Choate and Brougham, as 
lawyers and orators. I remember how ardently 
one of the students, of rather mature years, 
from the Southwest, insisted that Choate was 
the greater lawyer and orator, and referred to 



INCIDENTS. 401 

cases and occasions in the career of each to 
prove his position. There was a disposition to ac- 
quiesce in the view that Choate was the supe- 
rior. While this circumstance is not decisive, it is 
useful as showing how deep an impression Choate 
was then making upon appreciative minds. 

The late Mr. Somerby was a distinguished mem- 
ber of the Boston bar, and was frequently asso- 
ciated with Choate in the trial of causes. He was 
an enthusiastic admirer of Choate, and one clay, 
while riding with a friend through Mount Auburn 
Cemetery, took off his hat at a certain spot with 
so reverent an air that his companion asked him 
the reason. Mr. Somerby pointed to a grave 
near by, and said, " There is the grave of Rufus 
Choate. The man who goes by that grave with- 
out taking off his hat is not fit to live on earth." 

In his intercourse with the bar, Mr. Choate, 
though resolute, was disposed to be kind and 
courteous. One day I saw him engaged in court, 
in Boston, in a jury trial involving some question 
of patent right in a rifle. One of his adversaries 
was a well-known lawyer of the New York bar, 
who seemed to be very earnest and pronounced 
in his ways and methods. He was quite an ex- 
pert in his knowledge of fire-arms, and handled 
the rifle as if familiar with its use. He would 
hold and aim it as if about to fire in the court- 

26 



402 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

room. Choate did not shine in that way. In 
the course of the trial, his New York adversary 
made some abrupt and impolite remark to Choate 
as to the admissibility of certain evidence. In 
reply, Choate, who was evidently not pleased with 
the remark, noticed it by referring, in a sombre 
way, to the learned counsel from New York, 
whom he could not call his brother. 

A Plymouth friend sends me the following : 
A gentleman was in his study one day, and Mr. 
Choate, who had a closet in which he kept bottles 
and glasses and ice-water, had taken out his de- 
canter, and was enjoying a social glass (a thing, 
by the way, which he did very rarely, and with 
great moderation), when he heard some one com- 
ing up the stairs, and, expecting the Rev. Dr. 
Adams, he suddenly and hastily gathered all the 
implements, thrust them into the closet, and shut 
it, when his library door opened, and, instead of 
Dr. Adams, there appeared before him his friend, 
Mr. Peter Harvey. " Why, Harvey ! is that you ? 
I thought it was a Presbyterian foot-fall." And 
he immediately replaced the paraphernalia so 
suddenly hidden from sight. 

A Boston gentleman says, " On one evening, 
when Mr. Brough and others gave a concert in 
Boston, my informant was one of the last comers 
of a crowded audience, and consequently had to 



ANECDOTES. 403 

take his seat near the door, and as far as the 
dimensions of the hall would permit from the 
singers' platform. He was happy to find himself 
seated next to Mr. Choate. At a late period of 
the performance, Mr. Brough came upon the stage, 
and comported himself so oddly that my friend 
said to Mr. Choate, ' I think the man must be 
drunk.' ' I smelled his breath the moment he 
came upon the stage,' replied Choate." 

He once passed the night at the once famous 
inn of Mrs. Nicholson, in Plymouth, — a some- 
what rambling house, in whic*h the only room 
not necessarily used as a passage-way to other 
rooms was occupied by Justice Wilde of the 
Supreme Court. Most of the members of the 
Plymouth bar, inmates of the house, including 
Eddy, Coffin, Baylies, Packard, and Young, were 
playing cards until a late hour. At breakfast, 
Justice Wilde, whose Puritanical manner was not 
unmixed with humor, knowing well the situa- 
tion of things, said, " Well, Mr. Choate, I sup- 
pose you slept well ? " " Admirably, your Honor, 
except that I slept in the highway," replied Mr. 
Choate. 

I remember hearing Mr. Choate defend the 
master of the schooner Sally Ann, tried in the 
United States Court, in Boston, on a charge of 
casting away his vessel, in defraud of the under- 



404 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

writers, on the coast of St. Domingo. The jury- 
had disagreed in a former trial, conducted by 
District Attorney Robert Rantoul, Jr. George 
Lunt, appointed his successor, had secured ad- 
ditional testimony, with, as he thought, a cer- 
tainty of conviction. The testimony on both 
sides was closed ; and, during a short recess taken 
before the arguments, Mr. Choate, in passing 
through the entry, accidentally overheard the 
colored cook of the vessel, who had been called 
as a government witness, but not used, speak of 
the captain's crying when he left his vessel and 
took to his boat. Choate hurried into court, 
and, with great impressiveness, asked permission 
to put in an important piece of testimony, which 
had only at that moment come to his knowledge. 
With the permission of the judge, the cook was 
called ; and, in reply to the question of Mr. Choate 
as to the deportment of the master on leaving his 
vessel, said, " He cried like a child." " That is 
all," said Mr. Choate ; and, with this single straw 
of sentiment to save his case, his appeals to the 
jury were so pathetic that a verdict of acquittal 
followed, wrung out of the chords in the human 
heart, which he knew so well how to touch, and 
which resented the idea that a man could cry over 
the loss of his dear Sally Ann if he were guilty of 
her destruction. 



INCIDENT IN COURT. 405 

I am indebted to a venerable and learned mem- 
ber of the Boston bar for the following; : — 

One clay, at the close of the testimony in an 
important trial in a civil action, in which Mr. 
Choate was engaged before the Supreme Court, 
at Dedham, Judge Shaw said he did not think 
there was any question of fact to submit to the 
jury, and the better course would be to take a 
verdict pro forma, and reserve the law questions 
for the full bench. Then, turning to Mr. Choate, 
the judge said, " Mr. Choate, upon the view sug- 
gested, if agreeable to you, I will order a verdict 
against your client." Choate stepped forward, 
and, bowing in his fine manner, gravely replied : 
" If your Honor please, as to whether the course 
you propose will be agreeable to me, I desire to 
say that I do not remember any case ever in my 
charge wherein I would not have found it agree- 
able to have a verdict in favor of my client." 
The reply and Choate's inimitable manner caused 
much merriment among the law r yers and spec- 
tators. 

The late Vice-President Wilson — a name likely 
to grow in importance in American political his- 
tory — was, I think, a warm admirer of the genius 
and eloquence of Rufus Choate, though not of his 
entire political course. I remember meeting Mr. 
Wilson (whom I knew as a life-long friend) soon 



406 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

after the Whig National Convention that nomi- 
nated General Scott, in 1852, at Baltimore. 
Choate was there, strenuously advocating the 
nomination of Mr. Webster. In speaking of the 
convention, Wilson said that Choate made an 
ingenious and brilliant speech for Webster, upon 
the basis of accepting the compromise measure 
of 1850 as a finality, and that there was no 
orator in the convention that equaled Choate. 

In his work entitled " Rise and Fall of the Slave 
Power in America," Mr. Wilson, in referring to 
the resolutions introduced by Mr. Ashman, which 
were believed to be in harmony with Mr. Web- 
ster's views, speaks of " the impassioned and brill- 
iant speech which Mr. Choate made on their re- 
ception and in their behalf." Again, he states 
in the same work, that, " In answer to vociferous 
calls, Mr. Choate addressed the convention in a 
speech of great forensic brilliancy and force, in 
which, however, was far more apparent the spe- 
cial pleading of the advocate than the calm con- 
sideration of the statesman." 

In the same work, the author refers, in a kindly 
way, to the part taken by Mr. Choate as counsel 
for the Commonwealth, in 1836, when the Supreme 
Court decided, in the case of the slave child Med, 
brought to that State by its owner, " that an 
owner of a slave in another State where slavery is 



THE ASHBURTON TREATY. 407 

warranted by law, voluntarily bringing such slave 
into this State, has no authority to retain him 
against his will, or carry him out of the State 
against his consent, for the purpose of being held 
in slavery." This important opinion, which was so 
much quoted in subsequent controversies, was de- 
livered by Chief Justice Shaw. Again, on the 9th 
of August, 1842, the Ashburton Treaty was signed 
at Washington. It was largely aimed at the 
suppression of the slave trade, and required the 
United States to cooperate with an armed force 
on the coast of Africa. The treaty was bitterly 
assailed in the Senate by Mr. Benton of Missouri, 
Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Conrad of Louisiana, and oth- 
ers. The latter said, " If ratified, Great Britain 
will unfurl the banner of abolition still more con- 
spicuously before your slaves. She will accustom 
them to consider her as their benefactor, the cham- 
pion of their rights, the avenger of their wrongs." 
Referring to the hot debate in the Senate, and 
characterizing the motives of the men and news- 
papers that opposed the treaty (which was rati- 
fied), Mr. Wilson, in his work, says that " Many 
saw their true spirit, but none more fitly described 
them than Rufus Choate, then in the Senate, who 
spoke of them as ' restless, selfish, reckless, the 
cankers of a calm world and a long peace, pining 
with thirst of notoriety, slaves to their hatred of 



408 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

England, to whom the treaty is distasteful, to 
whom any treaty and all things but the glare and 
clamor, the vain pomp and hollow circumstance, 
the toil and agony and inadequate results of war, 
— all but those would be distasteful and dreary.' " 

Again, in the same work, Mr. Wilson refers 
to Mr. Choate's opposition to the joint resolution 
for the annexation of Texas in 1844, and says, 
" Rufus Choate, of Massachusetts, made a brilliant 
and eloquent speech in opposition, both on the 
ground of power and expediency. ' We could 
not,' he contended, ' admit Texas by the joint 
resolution of the House, if it would insure a thou- 
sand years of liberty to the Union. If, like the 
fabled garden of old, its rivers should run pearls, 
and its trees bear imperial fruit of gold, — yet 
even we could not admit her, because it would 
be a sin against the Constitution.' " 

In their earlier private and public life, Sumner 
and Choate were warm friends, though differing 
widely on political questions in later years. Mr. 
Pierce, author of Memoirs, etc., of Sumner, men- 
tions several incidents that show this. As early 
as 1834, Sumner was brought into personal rela- 
tions with Choate when he was in Washington, a 
member of the House, and Sumner was there on 
a professional errand. 

In 1834, and for several years after, No. 4 



NO. 4 COURT STREET. 409 

Court Street, Boston, must have been an attract- 
ive place. There were gathered there, at this pe- 
riod, several lawyers, since well known, some of 
whom have achieved permanent fame. On the 
same floor with Sumner and Hillard were Theoph- 
ilus Parsons, Rufus Choate, the two Chandlers, 
and John A. Andrew, afterwards governor. On a 
floor above was Horace Mann, who in after years 
displayed great ability as a member of Congress, 
and when in charge of important educational in- 
terests. Here also were Edward G. Loring and 
Luther S. dishing. When Hillard left the build- 
ing in 1856, he wrote in verse a graceful " Fare- 
well to Number Four," which called forth some 
happy rejoinders. Judge Story, Greenleaf, Fel- 
ton, Park Benjamin, and George Bancroft were 
frequent callers at No. 4, which was thus closely 
identified with the daily life of Mr. Choate. Hil- 
lard, writing to Sumner from New York, in 1836, 
recalls, in contrast with the law offices of that 
city, " our cool and pleasant office, and the quiet 
and cultivated friends who drop in." 

In 1834-35 we find Sumner and Choate with 
Edward Everett, Hillard, and others, announced 
in a course of lectures before the Boston Lyceum 
at Boylston Hall. In a letter to Longfellow in 
August, 1837, Sumner refers to Choate in terms 
of mutual friendship. Mr. Pierce says that Sum- 



410 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

ner "much enjoyed his friendly relations with 
Rufus Choate, whose office was at No. 4 Court 
Street. They talked of politics and literature, 
particularly of Burke, for whom Mr. Choate had 
an extravagant admiration. When the latter was 
in the United States Senate, 1841-42, they treated 
of the same themes in correspondence. Later 
they were associated professionally in the boun- 
dary dispute between Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island." In June, 1841, Sumner wrote Dr. Lie- 
ber, " Choate will be glad to renew his acquaint- 
ance with you ; his speech on McLeod's case is 
masterly." In 1842, Sumner wrote two articles 
maintaining the qualified right of search, which 
attracted much attention. Choate, while in the 
Senate, worked with Sumner, approving the posi- 
tion taken. In February, 1842, in a letter to 
Dr. Lieber, Sumner wrote, " I am glad you like 
Choate so well. His position here is very firm. 
He is the leader of our bar, with an overwhelm- 
ing superfluity of business, with a strong taste for 
books and learned men, with great amiableness of 
character, with uncommon eloquence and untir- 
ing industry." Again, in a letter to Lord Mor- 
peth, September 6, 1842, touching the Ashburton 
Treaty, Sumner refers to what Choate thinks in- 
fluenced the British authorities in the matter. In 
a letter to Dr. Lieber, September, 1843, Sumner 



USE OF ADJECTIVES. 411 

writes, " Choate is entirely uncommitted on the 
subject of international copyright. He has never 
looked at it ; and, if he sees his way clear to be its 
advocate, he will enter into it. He asked me to 
state to him in a few words the argument on both 
sides. I thought of Madame de Stael and Fichte, 
— " ' Donnez moi vos idees en dix mots.' I did it, 
and he muses still." 

In 1844, Perkins edited the American edition of 
" Brown's Chancery Reports," and dedicated it to 
Mr. Choate. Sumner wrote to Perkins, " Your 
dedication cannot fail to give great pleasure to 
Mr. Choate. It is a beautiful, and, I think, a well 
deserved, tribute from a former pupil. It is with 
hesitation that I venture to touch rudely what is 
chiseled so carefully. But, as a general rule, it 
seems to me that one cannot be too abstemious of 
adjectives in an inscription which should be close 
and lapidary in its character." While Sumner's 
view is doubtless correct, it may be that " adjec- 
tives," even in an inscription, did not worry 
Choate, who knew how to marshal them in long 
array ; as, for instance, the following, when he 
spoke of a harness as " a safe, sound, substantial, 
suitable, second-rate, second-hand harness," or 
spoke of the Greek mind as " subtle, mysterious, 
plastic, apprehensive, comprehensive, available." 

Mr. Choate felt a proper reverence for the 



412 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

things that belong to religion. "Whether he be- 
lieved in a creed, in a technical, Calvinistic sense, 
is doubtful. But that he had a deep religious 
nature, which found expression in various ways, 
there can be no doubt. 

My cousin, the late Rev. Hubbard Winslow, 
who for several years was pastor of the Bowdoin 
Street Church, in Boston, was an admiring and 
warm friend of both Webster and Choate, and 
received from them many tokens of reciprocal 
regard. I visited Marshfield, in 1862, with Dr. 
Winslow, at the Webster mansion, when I saw, in 
the kind welcome extended to him, and expres- 
sions of friendship at dinner, ample evidence of 
mutual respect and esteem. Dr. Winslow once 
gave me a touching account of his baptism of 
one of Mr. Choate's children, — Caroline, the 
youngest, and deeply beloved, who was sick, and 
near death. Having received a note from Mr. 
Choate, requesting his kind offices in the baptism 
of his child, Dr. Winslow went to the residence, 
and there met the family in great affliction. In 
his account of what occurred, and his description 
of the scene, with Mr. Choate as a central figure, 
and heart-stricken father, Dr. Winslow left a clear 
impression upon my mind that he thought Choate 
a sincere and profound believer. I will not here 
repeat the story of the baptism scene, as related 



BURKE ON A GREAT NAME. 413 

to me by the minister; it was an experience 
which brought out impressively, in the presence 
of death, the affectionate and reverent side of Mr. 
Choate's character. 

Hon. E. L. Pierce and the late Professor Lon«-- 
fellow were appointed literary executors by Sum- 
ner's will. I am permitted, by the kindness of 
Mr. Pierce, to subjoin several interesting letters 
of Choate's to his friend Sumner, which further 
illustrate his views and character. 

In closing this contribution thus made in com- 
pliance with the polite request of Judge Neilson, 
my regret is that I did not see and know more of 
the patriotic, scholarly lawyer, of whom it may 
be justly said he was primus inter pares. 

Burke, whom Choate admired so much, said of 
Lord Chatham, "A great and celebrated name; 
a name that keeps the name of this country re- 
spectable in every other on the globe." So, for 
his own country, the name of Rufus Choate, as an 
accomplished jurist, shall fulfill a like office. 

JOHN WINSLOW. 



LETTERS BY CHOATE TO SUMNER. 



Washington, Saturday, May 29, 1841. 

My deae Sir, — I found the inclosed, addressed 
to me here, and have great pleasure in giving it a 
chance to pass under your critical, and yet benev- 
olent, eye. I have hardly done more than wash 
off the " variation of each " dust accumulated, all 
the way from Boston, on my pen, ink, and paper, 
— more commonly in this country, and more 
conveniently, called stationery, since it included 
wafers, wax candles, penknives, and the like, — 
and settle myself in an airy third-story. Yet I 
see and feel — in green peas, ripe cherries, mown 
grass, roses, and a thermometer at 80° — the new 
climate I have come to. 

The President is in high spirits — making a 
good impression. He will stand by Mr. Webster, 
and the talk of an unfriendly conservative action 
is true, but not terrifying. Cushing will not be 
Speaker, and White, I should think, will, — of 
Kentucky, — a Clay nomination. But, I forget 



APPOINTMENT OF EVERETT. 415 

the worthlessness of this gossip, — and leave you 
to your studies, business, ladies, and claret 

Very truly yours, 

R. CIIOATE. 

Washington. 

My dear Sumner, — I have just received the 
memorandum, and will turn it nocturna et di- 
urna manu, — to quote obscure and unusual 
Latin words. I hope it will do your friend's 
business, and the Pope's, and England's, and the 
lone Imperial mother's, — as you say. 

Mr. Webster is so much excited (and con- 
fidentially gratified) with the squaboshment of 
the Whigs 1 that he will talk of nothing else. 
He thinks he can Seal better with Sir Robert 
Peel et id genus. Can he? Your acquaintance 
was made with so whiggish a set that I suppose 
you mourn as for the flight of liberty. But, 
mark you, how much more peaceably, 2 mre tyi 
intellectually, did this roaring democracy of ours 
change its whole government and whole policy, 
last fall, than England has clone it now. 

Yes, Everett's is a good appointment. Ask 
me, when I get home, if we did not come near 
losing him in the Senate, from abolitionism, — 
entre nous, — if we do, the Union goes to pieces 

1 Lord Melbourne's Ministry. 



416 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

like a potter's vessel. But as Ercles' vein is not 
lightly nor often to be indulged in — {nee Deus 
inter sit nisi, et cet). 

I give love to Hillard, salute you, and am 

Very truly yours, 

R. C. 
We shall have a veto after all, ut timeo. 

Dear Sumner, — I have this moment received 
the inclosed, with a civil note from our friend 
of Waterloo and the Encyclopedia. I hope you 
and he are plotting nothing against Christianity, 
though I doubt about you both grievously. He 
expects you to answer through me, and I beg you 

would. In a line to , yesterday, I adverted 

to the cases of Dr. Howe and Mrs. Bayard, quod 
vide. Neither goes as we would wish, alas for 
the wishes of friendship and the dreams of love. 

We shall this morning, probably, — it is near 8 
A. M., and our committee meets at 10, — report a 
more erect and self-sustaining and respected char- 
ter than Mr. Ewing's. 

The debauched state of public opinion exceeds 

belief. Pejor actus. Write me a long letter. 

• Very truly yours, 

K. CHOATE. 
21 June, 1841. 



APPLICATIONS DOUBTFUL. 417 

(private.) 

September 12th, 1841. 

My dear Sumner, — I am indignant at such 
indolent and careless discourtesy — but hang, 
shoot, and drown me if I can help it. I have 
spoken to him a hundred times — and although I 
do not think he takes strongly to the application 
— indeed — there is no vacancy — I did suppose 
he had written. 

Just now, a real crisis — harassed — distract — 
arranging cabinets — etc., etc. — he is impenetra- 
ble to these duties of kindness, propriety — I read 
him your letter — in a voice loud enough for 
Faneuil Hall. He surely will write, at least. 

(Private.) 

We spent yesterday all day on Everett. Al- 
though I say, as I should not say it, I am inno- 
cent of the man's blood. After five hours, we 
found by sounding round the Chamber we should 
be 24 x 24 — so we adjourned, and I have great 
hopes we shall carry it to-morrow. 

The session ends to-morrow, but I shall stay 
three or four days. " God bless you." 

Very truly yours, 

R. CHOATE. 
27 



418 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Washington, December 9, 1841. 

My dear Sir, — I have just got yours, shall 

have great pleasure in expressing myself in Mr. 

T.'s behalf. The " all powerful words " are few, 

nay, rather lost — but just and friendly ones all 
may speak. 

Yes, I ought to have composed that strife as I 
ought to have done much other good — Pulcher 
et multa minans, vero nee recti nee suaviter. 

But not to diffuse myself in any more philoso- 
phy — all thrown away on young chaps, 
I abruptly declare myself, truly yours, 

R. CHOATE. 

My dear Sir, — I have received and trans- 
mitted your papers for Lieber ; and read the 
D. A. with edification and assent. We are wrong. 

Lieber sent me a strong paper on this same 
subject. He is the most fertile, indomitable, un- 
sleeping, combative, and propagandizing person of 
his race. I have bought " Longfellow," and am 
glad to hear of his run. 

Politics are unpromising — but better than last 
session. The juste milieu will vindicate itself. 
With much love to G. S. H., 

Yours faithfully, 

R. CHOATE. 

7 January, 1842. 

C. Sumner, Esq. 



INVOCATION AS TO THE CREOLE. 419 

Washington, January 2Uh, 1842. 

My dear Sir, — I cry your pardon in the mat- 
ter of your letter. It was all just right, and 
showed me well enough that you were quite 
enough in earnest — but was an uncommon docu- 
ment for Boards of Commissioners. However, I 
sent it, with high praise of you and the Doctor. 

You are clearly right in the Search question. 
I never was more gratified than to have been 
asked — by a spoon, though — if I did not write it. 

Discuss the Creole — as quick — and as well as 
you possibly can. 

Lord Morpeth is just come, and pleases univer- 
sally. He attends our atrocious spectacles in 
H. H., with professional relish. 

Most truly yours, 

R. C. 

My dear Sumner, — I hoped to write before 
now to tell you what can be done for the elegant 
and tuneful Professor. 

No certain thing do I get yet, but I trust soon 
to have. It is the age of patronage of genius you 
see. Regnat Ajiollo, as one may say. . . . 

That was a most rich speech of Hillard's, as is 
all his speaking, whether to listening crowds or to 
appreciating circles of you and me. We hear 
that one Mrs. Dickens called on him and Mrs. 



420 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Hillard with a significant and expressive civility 
and respect. In his heart, I have no doubt the 
Secretary of State agrees with you. But think of 
this : Shall we not give E. a right by treaty to 
search for enough to find the American character, 
— on condition that by treaty she agrees to assist 
our slave ships in distress in the W. I. ? To get 
such treaties, must we not begin by denying all her 
claims to search ? How cheerful, genial, and fra- 
grant, as it were, are our politics ! What serried 
files of armed men, shoulder to shoulder, keeping 
time to the music of duty and glory, animated by 
a single soul, are the Whigs ! But this delicious 
winter bears us swiftly through it all, and the sun 
of to-day lights up the Potomac ; and burns with 
the flush and glory of June. Dexter says this city 
reminds one of Rome. I suppose he meant in its 
spaces — solitudes, quiet, vices, and so forth — 
though the surrounding country is undoubtedly 
beautiful. Love to Hillard. Lieber writes in 
Latin. I mean to answer him in any tongue 
whatever he chooses to speak, and for that pur- 
pose must break off and go at him. 

Truly yours, 

R. CHOATE. 

19 February, 1842. 



ASHBURTON TREATY. 421 

Washington, 10 p. m. 

Deae Sumner and Hillard, — I have ad- 
dressed myself with tears of entreaty to the Sec- 
retary ; and, if no hidden snag or planter lies 
nnder the muddy flood, we shall scull the Doctor 
into port. There, as Dr. Watts says, he may 

" Sit and sing himself away," 

or exclaim, — 

" Spes et fortuna, valete — inveni nunc portura, 
Lusistis me satis — ludite nunc alios " — 

wdiich is from the Greek, you know, in Dalzell's 
" GrEec. Majora," vol. 2d, — and closes some edi- 
tions of Gil Bias ! 

The voting on the Ashburton Treaty at nine at 
night — seats full — lights lighted, — hall as still 
as death — was not without grandness. But why 
speak of this to the procurcmtes of that denational- 
ized Boston and Massachusetts ? 

Yours truly, 

R. CHOATE. 

My dear Sir, — I did not get your letter till 10 
o'clock p. m., yesterday, Saturday, and it comes 
unaccompanied by that more sober and more busi- 
ness-like memorandum to which it refers. Where 
is that? I had previously written letters for a 
Mr. Beal and a Mr. Kittredge — and sent them 
by the ears to the Board. Your letter is so full 



422 MEMORIES OF RUFUS C HO ATE. 

of rhetoric, poetry and a certain fashionable un- 
concernedness that I dare not send that. Dr. 
Sewall has received nothing. This is Sunday, 
and I think to-night I shall get the other papers, 
and to-morrow the Board shall have them. 

I hope the race will not be so far to the swift 
that we shall catch and outrun these mortal men. 
I have a notion Kittredge is thorough and honest, 
but I suspect his price is high. 

I will retain this letter till evening. 

Sunday evening, 9 o'clock. I get nothing more 
from you, so that all I have is your note. In 
this predicament, I think I will address a note to 
the Board, stating that the Doctor will apply, and 
suggesting, generally, the ground of his equity. 

Very truly yours, 

R. CHOATE. 

17 January, 1842. 

My dear Sir, — I mourn that I cannot get 
you yet a copy of the opinions, otherwise called 
Old Fields. I am in collusion with Tims ; and if 
man can do it, Tims is he. I have never got one 
for myself, or I would send that. I send you 
my speech, so that if you do not get Anne Page, 
you, however, have the great lubberly boy. 

Never reading Buckingham, 1 1 only guess, from 

1 Editor of Boston paper. 



HE ABUSETH ME. 42 



o 



your kind hint, that he abuseth me. The tariff 
speech, I assure you, I sent him. 

Lord Ashburton is a most interesting man, 
quick, cheerful, graceful-minded, keen, and pru- 
dent. The three young men are also clever ; 
young rather ; one a Whig, — all lovers of Lord 
Morpeth. Maine comes in with such exacting 

purposes, that, between us, I doubt. 

R. CHOATE. 

2 June. 

My dear Sumner, — Ten thousand thanks for 
your seasonable kindness. I won't quit till I beat 
both those speeches out and out. 

Read not a word of what is called my Oregon 
speech till I send one. 

I shall return all the papers by W. F. Hillard, 
Esq. Doubtless originals should be kept at home 
safe. But nothing is lost or mutilated. 

Most truly yours, 

R. CHOATE. 

25 February, 1844. 

My dear Sumner, — I thank you for the docu- 
ments. The case is assigned for the 20th, — and 
being, as Mr. Justice Catron expressly declared, 
a case of " Sovereign States," it has, before this 
tribunal of strict constructionists, a terrified and 
implicit precedence. 



424 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Great swelling words of prescription ought to 
be spoken. For the rest, I see no great fertility 
or heights in it. 

Most hurriedly yours, 

R. CHOATE. 
oaturday, 5 p. M. 



Saturday, February 17, 1844. 

My dear Sir, — To my horror and annoyance, 
the court has just continued our cause to the next 
term. 

The counsel of Rhode Island moved it yester- 
day, assigning for cause that the court was not 
full ; that the Chief Justice could not sit, by 
reason of ill health ; Mr. Justice Story did not 
sit, and there was a vacancy on the bench. The 
court was, therefore, reduced to six judges. We 
opposed the motion. 

To-day, Mr. Justice McLean said that, on inter- 
changing views, they found that three of the six, 
who would try it, have formerly, on the argument 
of the plea, come to an opinion in favor of Massa- 
chusetts, and that, therefore, they thought it not 
proper to proceed. If Rhode Island should fail, 
he suggested, she might have cause of dissatisfac- 
tion. 

I regret this result, on all accounts, and espe- 
cially that the constant preparatory labors of a 



THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. 425 

month are, for the present, wholly lost. I had 
actually withdrawn from the Senate Chamber to 
make up this argument, which may now never be 
of any use to anybody. (Private.) Shall I ask 
you, as a confidential and special act of friendship, 
to make this matter known to the public through 
any of our papers, in such manner, inter alia, as 
to convey the fact that counsel of Massachusetts 
have somewhat engrossingly prepared briefs in 
the cause ? 

It explains : Silence elsewhere is true and right 
and kind. The honest truth is, I have spent a 
full month, day and night, on the thing. Please, 
in this, state your general labors in procuring the 
local proofs. 

There is one quite important piece of evidence 
to be at once looked up. We ran the line be- 
tween us and Plymouth in 1664. 

It is of great consequence to show that, in so 
doing, we asserted our present construction of 
the charter, and that the "Angle-tree" is far 
south of Balfry's Station. It is important to 
show that, in 1670 and 1671, we ran a line 
towards the west, from the "Angle-tree" south 
of the present line. 

Mr. Mitchell will know in regard to the mode 
of proving these matters. 

We ought to have our connections and rela- 



426 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

tions, too, up to 1713, since her acquiescence is 
as high circumstantial evidence as Rhode Island's. 
Excuse all this. Yours, 

R. CHOATE. 

My dear Sumner, — The book itself is come 
at last, looking as much as to say, " Quos ego 
sed magnos pro est et componere jluctus." So 
has Mr. Packenham come, for did he not sit an 
hour last evening at the birth-night ball, with 
Mrs. Bayard ? Henceforth no peace with Eng- 
land. Nay, her very ambassadors should be cast 
into wells. Truly yours, 

R. CHOATE. 

February 23, 1844. 

May I ask you to assure Dr. Palfrey that his 
book is here, and to tell me how you denominate 
him, — quo nomine quadit, — Dr. Esq., arma or 
toga? 

These transitions play the devil with classifica- 
tions. 

February, 1844. 

My dear Sumner, — All the papers came safe, 
except, as yet, the whole volume, which is to come 
by Harnden. 

I shall print the useful, — keep all safely, with 
the entire file. Some of them are very good. 

The continuance of the cause rendered it par- 



CONTINUANCE OF THE CAUSE. 427 

tially to be regretted that so much trouble was 
given. But it is better to close the printing at 
once. 

Please thank Dr. Palfrey, and dry his and Mr. 
Felt's tears. I knew it would be like defending a 
city by holding up upon the walls, against darts 
and catapults, little children, images of gods, 
cats, dogs, onions, and all other Egyptian the- 
ogonies, — but better so than to be taken. 

Yours truly, 

R. CHOATE. 

My Dear Sumner, — I have written, by this 
mail, to Mr. Palfrey, Secretary of State, to send 
me instantly certain papers for Massachusetts vs. 
Rhode Island. May I entreat you to go, as soon 
as possible, to the State House, see my letter, and 
aid and urge its objects. You will know the what 
and where, and a mail saved is all one, — as it 
were, a kingdom for a horse. 

I thank you for your views, — excellent and 

seasonable. I will speak them to the Court so 

they shall never know anything else again as 

long as they live. Please be most prompt. 

Yours, 

R. CHOATE. 

15th February. The case is for the 20th ! ! 



428 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

Dear Summer, — I have just had your letter 
read to me, on a half-sick bed, and got up, red- 
olent of magnesia and roasted apples, to embrace 
you for your Burkeism generally, and for your 
extracts and references. It is odd that I have, on 
my last year's brief, a passage or two from him 
on that very topic which he appreciates so pro- 
foundly, but am most happy to add yours. By 
the way, I always admired that very letter in 
Prior, if it is the same. 

I hope you review Burke in the " North Amer- 
ican Review," though I have not got it, and you 
do not say so. Mind that he is the fourth Eng- 
lishman, — Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Burke. 
I hope you take one hundred pages for the 
article. Compare, contrast with Cicero, — both 
knowing all things, — but God knows where to 
end on Burke. No Englishman, or countryman 
of ours has the least appreciation of Burke. The 
Whigs never forgave the last eight or ten years 
of that life of glory, and the Tories never for- 
gave what preceded ; and we, poor unidealized, 
Tom Pinined democrats, do not understand his 
marvelous English, universal wisdom, illuminated, 
omniscient mind, and are afraid of his principles. 
What coxcombical rascal is it that thinks Boling- 
broke a better writer ? Take, page by page, the 
illusions, the felicities, the immortalities of truth, 



ESTIMATE OF BURKE. 429 

variety, reason, height, depth, everything, Boling- 
broke is a voluble prater to Burke. 

Amplify on his letter in reply to the Duke of 
Bedford. How mournful, melodious, Cassandra- 
like ! Out of Burke might be cut 50 Mackin- 
toshes, 175 Macaulays, 40 Jeffreys, and 250 Sir 
Kobert Peels, and leave him greater than Pitt 
and Fox together. 

I seem to suppose your article is not written, as 
I hope it is. God bless you. 

Yours truly, 

R. CHOATE. 

Mr. Gorden shall be shown all that we have, 
certainly. 

Boston, December 21, 1851. 

My dear Mr. Sumner, — I thank you for the 
copy of your beautiful speech, and for the making 
of it. All men say it is a successful one, parlia- 
mentarily expressing it, and I am sure it is sound, 
safe, steering between cold-shoulderism and inhos- 
pitality, on the one side, and the splendid folly 
and wickedness of cooperation, on the other. 
Cover the Magyar with flowers, lave him with 
perfume, serenade him with eloquence, and let 
him go home alone if he will not live here. Such 
is all that is permitted to wise states aspiring to 
" true grandeur." I wish to Heaven you would 



430 MEMORIES OF RUFUS CHOATE. 

write me de rebus congressus. How does the 
Senate strike you ? The best place this day on 
earth for reasoned, thoughtful, yet stimulant 
public speech. Think of that. 

Most truly yours, — in the union, — 

KUFUS CHOATE. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



REMARKS BEFORE THE CIRCUIT COURT ON 
THE DEATH OF MR. WEBSTER. 

[Mr. Webster died on Sunday morning, October 24, 1852. 
The members of the Suffolk Bar met on Monday morning, and 
appointed a committee to report a series of resolutions. These 
were read and adopted at an adjourned meeting, Thursday, Octo- 
ber 28th, and immediately presented to the Circuit Court of the 
United States for the District of Massachusetts, — Curtis and 
Sprague, Justices, on the bench. They were read by the Hon. 
George S. Hillard, after which Mr. Choate made the following 
remarks.] 

May it please YOUR Honors, — I have been re- 
quested by the members of the Bar of this Court to 
add a few words to the resolutions just read, in which 
they have embodied, as they were able, their sorrow 
for the death of their beloved and illustrious member 
and countryman, Mr. Webster; their estimation of his 
character, life, and genius; their sense of the bereave- 
ment, — to the country as to his friends, — incapable 
of repair ; the pride, the fondness, — the filial and the 
patriotic pride and fondness, — with which they cherish, 
and would consign to history to cherish, the memory of 
a great and good man. 
28 



434 APPENDIX. 

And yet I could earnestly have desired to be ex- 
cused from this duty. He must have known Mr. 
Webster less, and loved him less, than your Honors, or 
than I have known and loved him, who can quite yet, 
— quite yet, — before we can comprehend that we 
have lost him forever, — before the first paleness with 
which the news of his death overspread our cheeks has 
passed away, — before we have been down to lay him 
in the Pilgrim soil he loved so well, till the heavens 
be no more, — he must have known and loved him 
less than we have done who can come here quite yet, 
to recount the series of his service, to display with 
psychological exactness the traits of his nature and 
mind, to ponder and speculate on the secrets — on the 
marvelous secrets — and source of that vast power, 
which we shall see no more in action, nor aught in 
any degree resembling it, among men. These first 
moments should be given to grief. It may employ, it 
may promote a calmer mood, to construct a more 
elaborate and less unworthy memorial. 

For the purposes of this moment and place, indeed, 
no more is needed. What is there for this Court or 
for this Bar to learn from me, here and now, of him? 
The year and the day of his birth ; that birthplace on 
the frontier, yet bleak and waste; the well, of which 
his childhood drank, dug by that father of whom he 
has said, that " Through the fire and blood of seven 
years of revolutionary war he shrank from no danger, 
no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise 
his children to a condition better than his own ; " the 
elm-tree that father planted, fallen now, as father and 



APPENDIX. 435 

son have fallen ; that training of the giant infancy on 
catechism and Bible, and Watts's version of the Psalms, 
and the traditions of Plymouth, and Fort William 
Henry, and the Revolution, and the age of Washing- 
ton and Franklin, on the banks of the Merrimack, 
flowing sometimes in flood and anger from its secret 
springs in the crystal hills ; the two district school- 
masters, Chase and Tappan ; the village library ; the 
dawning of the love and ambition of letters ; the few 
months at Exeter and Boscawen ; the life of college ; 
the probationary season of school-teaching ; the clerk- 
ship in the Fryeburg Registry of Deeds ; his admis- 
sion to the bar, presided over by judges like Smith, 
illustrated by practicers such as Mason, where, by the 
studies, in the contentions of nine years, he laid the 
foundation of the professional mind ; his irresistible 
attraction to public life ; the oration on commerce ; 
the Rockingham resolutions ; his first term of four 
years' service in Congress, when, by one bound, he 
sprang to his place by the side of the foremost of the 
rising American statesmen ; his removal to this State ; 
and then the double and parallel current in which his 
life, studies, thoughts, cares have since flowed, bearing 
him to the leadership of the bar by universal acclaim, 
bearing him to the leadership of public life, — last of 
that surpassing triumvirate, shall we say the greatest, 
the most widely known and admired ? — all these 
things, to their minutest details, are known and re- 
hearsed familiarly. Happier than the younger Pliny, 
happier than Cicero, he has found his historian, un- 
solicited, in his lifetime, and his countrymen have him 
all by heart J 



436 APPENDIX. 

There is, then, nothing to tell you, — nothing to 
bring to mind. And then, if I may borrow the lan- 
guage of one of his historians and friends, — one of 
those through whose beautiful pathos the common 
sorrow uttered itself yesterday, in Faneuil Hall, — "I 
dare not come here and dismiss in a few summary 
paragraphs the character of one who has filled such a 
space in the history, one who holds such a place in 
the heart, of his country. It would be a disrespectful 
familiarity to a man of his lofty spirit, his great soul, 
his rich endowments, his long and honorable life, to 
endeavor thus to weigh and estimate them," — a half- 
hour of words, a handful of earth, for fifty years of 
great deeds, on high places ! 

But, although the time does not require anything 
elaborated and adequate, — forbids it, rather, — some 
broken sentences of veneration and love may be in- 
dulged to the sorrow which oppresses us. 

There presents itself, on the first and to any obser- 
vation of Mr. Webster's life and character, a twofold 
eminence, — eminence of the very highest rank, — in 
a twofold field of intellectual and public display, — 
the profession of the law and the profession of states- 
manship, — of which it would not be easy to recall 
any parallel in the biography of illustrious men. 

Without seeking for parallels, and without asserting 
that they do not exist, consider that he was, by uni- 
versal designation, the leader of the general American 
bar ; and that he was, also, by an equally universal 
designation, foremost of her statesmen living at his 
death ; inferior to not one who has lived and acted 



APPENDIX. 437 

since the opening of Lis own public life. Look at 
these aspects of his greatness separately, and from op- 
posite sides of the surpassing elevation. Consider that 
his single career at the bar may seem to have been 
enough to employ the largest faculties, without repose, 
for a lifetime ; and that, if then and thus the " infin- 
itum forensium rerum labor " should have conducted 
him to a mere professional reward, — a bench of chan- 
cery or law, the crown of the first of advocates, juris- 
peritorum eloquentissimus, — to the pure and mere 
honors of a great magistrate, — that that would be as 
much as is allotted to the ablest in the distribution of 
fame. Even that half, if I may say so, of his illustri- 
ous reputation, — how long the labor to win it, how 
worthy of all that labor ! He was bred first in the 
severest school of the common law, in which its doc- 
trines were expounded by Smith, and its administra- 
tion shaped and directed by Mason, and its foundation 
principles, its historical sources and illustrations, its 
connection with the parallel series of statutory enact- 
ments, its modes of reasoning, and the evidence of its 
truths, he grasped easily and completely ; and I have 
myself heard him say, that for many years, while still 
at the bar, he tried more causes, and argued more 
questions of fact to the jury than perhaps any other 
member of the profession anywhere. I have heard 
from others how, even then, he exemplified the same, 
direct, clear, and forcible exhibition of proofs, and the 
reasonings appropriate to proofs, as well as the same 
marvelous power of discerning instantly what we call 
the decisive points of the cause in law and fact, by 



438 APPENDIX. 

which he was later more widely celebrated. This was 
the first epoch in his professional training. 

With the commencement of his public life, or with 
his later removal to this State, began the second epoch 
of his professional training, conducting him through 
the gradation of the national tribunals to the study 
and practice of the more flexible, elegant, and scientific 
jurisprudence of commerce and of chancery, and to 
the grander and less fettered investigations of inter- 
national, prize, and constitutional law, and giving him 
to breathe the air of a more famous forum, in a more 
public presence, with more variety of competition, al- 
though he never met abler men, as I have heard him 
say, than some of those who initiated him in the rug- 
ged discipline of the courts of New Hampshire ; and 
thus, at length, by these studies, these labors, this con- 
tention, continued without repose, he came, now many 
years ago, to stand omnium assensu at the summit of 
the American bar. 

It is common, and it is easy, in the case of all in 
such position, to point out other lawyers, here and 
there, as possessing some special qualification or attain- 
ment more remarkably, perhaps, because more exclu- 
sively, — to say of one that he has more cases in his 
recollection at any given moment, or that he was ear- 
lier grounded in equity, or has gathered more black 
letter or civil law, or knowledge of Spanish or of 
Western titles, — and these comparisons were some- 
times made with him. But when you sought a coun- 
sel of the first rate for the great cause, who would 
most surely discern, and most powerfully expound, the 



APPENDIX. 439 

exact law, required by the controversy, in season for 
use ; who could most skillfully encounter the opposing 
law; under whose powers of analysis, persuasion, and 
display, the asserted right would assume the most 
probable aspect before the intelligence of the judge ; 
who, if the inquiry became blended with or resolved 
into facts, could most completely develop and most 
irresistibly expose them ; one " the law's whole thunder 
born to wield," — when you sought such a counsel, and 
could have the choice, I think the universal profession 
would have turned to him. And this would be so in 
nearly every description of cause, in any department. 
Some able men wield civil inquiries with a peculiar 
ability ; some criminal. How lucidly and how deeply 
he elucidated a question of property, you all know. 
But then, with what address, feeling, pathos, and pru- 
dence he defended, with what dignity and crushing 
power, accusatorio spiritu, he prosecuted the accused of 
crime, whom he believed to have been guilty, few have 
seen ; but none who have seen can ever forget it. 

Some scenes there are, some Alpine eminences rising 
above the high table-land of such a professional life, 
to which, in the briefest tribute, we should love to fol- 
low him. We recall that day, for an instance, when he 
first announced, with decisive display, what manner of 
man he was, to the Supreme Court of the nation. It 
was in 1818, and it was in the argument of the case 
of Dartmouth College. William Pinkney was recruit- 
ing his great faculties, and replenishing that reservoir 
of professional and elegant acquisition, in Europe. 
Samuel Dexter, "the honorable man, and the coun- 



440 APPENDIX. 

selor, and the eloquent orator," was in his grave. The 
boundless old-school learning of Luther Martin ; the sil- 
ver voice and infinite analytical ingenuity and resources 
of Jones ; the fervid genius of Emmett pouring itself 
along immenso ore; the ripe and beautiful culture of 
Wirt and Hopkinson, — the steel point, unseen, not un- 
felt, beneath the foliage ; Harper himself, statesman as 
well as lawyer, — these, and such as these, were left of 
that noble bar. That day Mr. Webster opened the 
cause of Dartmouth College to a tribunal unsurpassed 
on earth in all that gives illustration to a bench of law, 
not one of whom any longer survives. 

One would love to linger on the scene, when, after 
a masterly argument of the law, carrying, as we may 
now know, conviction to the general mind of the court, 
and vindicating and settling for his lifetime his place 
in that forum, he paused to enter, with an altered feel- 
ing, tone, and manner, with these words, on his perora- 
tion : " I have brought my Alma Mater to this pres- 
ence, that, if she must fall, she may fall in her robes, 
and with dignity ; " and then broke forth in that strain 
of sublime and pathetic eloquence, of which we know 
not much more than that, in its progress, Marshall, — 
the intellectual, the self-controlled, the unemotional, — 
announced, visibly, the presence of the unaccustomed 
enchantment. 

Other forensic triumphs crowd on us, in other com- 
petition, with other issues. But I must commit them 
to the historian of constitutional jurisprudence. 

And now, if this transcendent professional reputa- 
tion were all of Mr. Webster, it might be practicable, 



APPENDIX. 441 

though not easy, to find its parallel elsewhere in our 
own, or in European or classical biography. 

But, when you consider that, side by side with this, 
there was growing up that other reputation, — that of 
the first American statesman ; that, for thirty-three 
years, and those embracing his most Herculean works 
at the bar, he was engaged as a member of either 
House, or in the highest of the executive departments, 
in the conduct of the largest national affairs, in the 
treatment of the largest national questions, in debate 
with the highest abilities of American public life, con- 
ducting diplomatic intercourse in delicate relations with 
all manner of foreign powers, investigating whole classes 
of truths, totally unlike the truths of the law, and rest- 
ing on principles totally distinct, — and that here, too, 
he w r as wise, safe, controlling, trusted, the foremost 
man ; that Europe had come to see in his life a guar- 
anty for justice, for peace, for the best hopes of civil- 
ization, and America to feel surer of her glory and her 
safety as his great arm enfolded her, — you see how 
rare, how solitary, almost, was the actual greatness ! 
Who, anywhere, has won, as he had, the double fame, 
and worn the double wreath of Murray and Chatham, 
of Dunning and Fox, of Erskine and Pitt, of William 
Pinkney and Rufus King, in one blended and tran- 
scendent superiority? 

I cannot attempt to grasp and sum up the aggre- 
gate of the service of his public life at such a moment 
as this ; and it is needless. That life comprised a 
term of more than thirty-three years. It produced a 
body of performance, of which I may say, generally, 



442 APPENDIX. 

it was all which the first abilities of the country and 
time, employed with unexampled toil, stimulated by 
the noblest patriotism, in the highest places of the 
state, in the fear of God, in the presence of nations, 
could possibly compass. 

He came into Congress after the war of 1812 had 
begun ; and, though probably deeming it unnecessary, 
according to the highest standards of public necessity, 
in his private character, and objecting, in his public 
character, to some of the details of the policy by which 
it was prosecuted, and standing by party ties in gen- 
eral opposition to the administration, he never breathed 
a sentiment calculated to depress the tone of the public 
mind, to aid or comfort the enemy, to check or chill 
the stirrings of that new, passionate, unquenchable spirit 
of nationality, which then was revealed, or kindled to 
burn till we go down to the tombs of states. 

With the peace of 1815 his more cherished public 
labors began ; and thenceforward he devoted himself 
— the ardor of his civil youth, the energies of his 
maturest manhood, the autumnal wisdom of the ri- 
pened year — to the offices of legislation and diplo- 
macy; of preserving the peace, keeping the honor, 
establishing the boundaries, and vindicating the neutral 
rights of his country ; restoring a sound currency, and 
laying its foundation sure and deep ; in upholding 
public credit; in promoting foreign commerce and do- 
mestic industry ; in developing our uncounted material 
resources, — giving the lake and the river to trade, — 
and vindicating and interpreting the Constitution and 
the law. On all these subjects, — on all measures 



APPENDIX. 443 

practically in any degree affecting them, — he has in- 
scribed his opinions and left the traces of his hand. 
Everywhere the philosophical and patriot statesman 
and thinker will find that he has been before him, 
lighting the way, sounding the abyss. His weighty 
language, his sagacious warnings, his great maxims of 
empire will be raised to view, and live to be deci- 
phered when the final catastrophe shall lift the granite 
foundation in fragments from its bed. 

In this connection, I cannot but remark to how ex- 
traordinary an extent had Mr. Webster, by his acts, 
words, thoughts, or the events of his life, associated 
himself forever in the memory of all of us with every 
historical incident, or, at least, with every historical 
epoch, with every policy, with every glory, with every 
great name and fundamental institution, and grand or 
beautiful image, which are peculiarly and properly 
American. Look backwards to the planting of Plym- 
outh and Jamestown ; to the various scenes of colo- 
nial life in peace and war ; to the opening and march 
and close of the revolutionary drama ; to the age of 
the Constitution ; to Washington and Franklin and 
Adams and Jefferson ; to the whole train of causes, 
from the Reformation downwards, which prepared us 
to be republicans ; to that other train of causes which 
led us to be unionists, — look round on field, work- 
shop, and deck, and hear the music of labor rewarded, 
fed, and protected; look on the bright sisterhood of 
the States, each singing as a seraph in her motion, 
yet blending in a common harmony, — and there is 
nothing which does not bring him by some tie to the 



444 appendix: 

memory of America. We seem to see bis form and 
bear bis deep, grave speech every where. By some 
felicity of bis personal life; by some wise, deep, or 
beautiful word, spoken or written ; by some service of 
his own, or some commemoration of the services of 
others, it has come to pass that "our granite hills, 
our inland seas, and prairies, and fresh, unbounded? 
magnificent wilderness," our encircling ocean, the Rock 
of the Pilgrims, our new-born sister of the Pacific, our 
popular assemblies, our free schools, all our cherished 
doctrines of education, and of the influence of religion, 
and material policy, and the law, and the Constitution, 
give us back his name. What American landscape 
will you look on, what subject of American interest 
will you study, what source of hope or of anxiety, as 
an American, will you acknowledge, that does not re- 
call him ? 

I shall not venture, in this rapid and general recol- 
lection of Mr. Webster, to attempt to analyze that intel- 
lectual power which all admit to have been so extraor- 
dinary, or to compare or contrast it with the mental 
greatness of others, in variety or degree, of the living 
or the dead ; or even to attempt to appreciate, exactly, 
and in reference to canons of art, his single attribute of 
eloquence. Consider, however, the remarkable phenom- 
enon of excellence in three unkindred, one might have 
thought, incompatible forms of public speech, — that of 
the forum, with its double audience of bench and jury, 
of the halls of legislation, and of the most thronged 
and tumultuous assemblies of the people. 

Consider, further, that this multiform eloquence, ex- 



APPENDIX. 445 

actly as his words fell, became at once so much acces- 
sion to permanent literature, in the strictest sense, 
solid, attractive, and rich, and ask how often in the 
history of public life such a thing has been exemplified. 
Recall what pervaded all these forms of display, and 
every effort in every form, — that union of naked intel- 
lect, in its largest measure, which penetrates to the 
exact truth of the matter in hand, by intuition or by 
inference, and discerns everything which may make it 
intelligible, probable, or credible to another, with an 
emotional and moral nature profound, passionate, and 
ready to kindle, and with an imagination enough to 
supply a hundred-fold more of illustration and ag- 
grandizement than his taste suffered him to accept; 
that union of greatness of soul with depth of heart, 
which made his speaking almost more an exhibition of 
character than of mere genius; the style, not merely 
pure, clear Saxon, but so constructed, so numerous as 
far as becomes prose, so forcible, so abounding in un- 
labored felicities ; the words so choice ; the epithet so 
pictured ; the matter absolute truth, or the most exact 
, and specious resemblance the human wit can devise ; 
the treatment of the subject, if you have regard to 
the kind of truth he had to handle, — political, ethical, 
legal, — as deep, as complete as Paley's, or Locke's, 
or Butler's, or Alexander Hamilton's, of their subjects; 
yet that depth and that completeness of sense, made 
transparent as through crystal waters, all embodied in 
harmonious or well-composed periods, raised on winged 
language, vivified, fused, and poured along in a tide of 
emotion, fervid, and incapable to be withstood; recall 



446 APPENDIX. 

the form, the eye, the brow, the tone of voice, the 
presence of the intellectual king of men, — recall him 
thus, and, in the language of Mr. Justice Story, com- 
memorating Samuel Dexter, we may well " rejoice that 
we have lived in the same age, that we have listened 
to his eloquence, and been instructed by his wisdom." 

I cannot leave the subject of his eloquence without 
returning to a thought I have advanced already. All 
that he has left, or the larger portion of all, is the 
record of spoken words. His works, as already col- 
lected, extend to many volumes, — a library of reason 
and eloquence, as Gibbon has said of Cicero's, — but 
they are volumes of speeches only, or mainly; and yet 
who does not rank him as a great American author? 
an author as truly expounding, and as characteristically 
exemplifying, in a pure, genuine, and harmonious Eng- 
lish style, the mind, thought, point of view of objects, 
and essential nationality of his country as any other of 
our authors, professedly so denominated? Against the 
maxim of Mr. Fox, his speeches read well, and yet 
were good speeches — great speeches — in the delivery. 
For so grave were they, so thoughtful and true, so 
much the eloquence of reason at last, so strikingly al- 
ways they contrived to link the immediate topic with 
other and broader principles, ascending easily to widest 
generalizations, so happy was the reconciliation of the 
qualities which engage the attention of hearers, yet re- 
ward the perusal of students, so critically did they 
keep the right side of the line which parts eloquence 
from rhetoric, and so far do they rise above the penury 
of mere debate, that the general reason of the country 



APPENDIX. 447 

has enshrined them at once, and forever, among our 
classics. 

It is a common belief that Mr. Webster was a vari- 
ous reader; and I think it is true, even to a greater 
degree than has been believed. In his profession of 
politics, nothing, I think, worthy of attention had es- 
caped him ; nothing of the ancient or modern pru- 
dence; nothing which Greek or Roman or European 
speculation in that walk had explored, or Greek or Ro- 
man or European or universal history or public biogra- 
phy exemplified. I shall not soon forget with what 
admiration he spoke, at an interview to which he admit- 
ted me, while in the Law School at Cambridge, of the 
politics and ethics of Aristotle, and of the mighty mind 
which, as he said, seemed to have " thought through " 
so many of the great problems which form the dis- 
cipline of social man. American history and American 
political literature he had by heart, — the long series 
of influences which trained us for representative and 
free government ; that other series of influences which 
moulded us into a united government ; the colonial era ; 
the age of controversy before the revolution ; every 
scene and every person in that great tragic action ; 
every question which has successively engaged our poli- 
tics, and every name which has figured in them, — the 
whole stream of our time was open, clear, and present 
ever to his eye. 

Beyond his profession of politics, so to call it, he 
had been a diligent and choice reader, as his extraor- 
dinary style in part reveals ; and I think the love of 
reading would have gone with him to a later and riper 



448 APPENDIX. 

age, if to such an age it had been the will of God to 
preserve him. This is no place or time to appreciate 
this branch of his acquisitions ; but there is an interest 
inexpressible in knowing who were any of the chosen 
from among the great dead in the library of such a man. 
Others may correct me, but I should say of that interior 
and narrower circle were Cicero, Virgil, Shakespeare, 
— whom he knew as familiarly as the Constitution, — 
Bacon, Milton, Burke, Johnson, — to whom I hope it 
is not pedantic nor fanciful to say, I often thought his 
nature presented some resemblance ; the same abun- 
dance of the general propositions, required for explain- 
ing a difficulty and refuting a sophism, copiously and 
promptly occurring to him ; the same kindness of heart 
and wealth of sensibility, under a manner, of course, 
more courteous and gracious, yet more sovereign ; the 
same sufficient, yet not predominant, imagination, stoop- 
ing ever to truth, and giving affluence, vivacity, and 
attraction to a powerful, correct, and weighty style of 
prose. 

I cannot leave this life and character without select- 
ing and dwelling a moment on one or two of his 
traits, or virtues, or felicities, a little longer. There 
is a collective impression made by the whole of an 
eminent person's life, beyond and other than, and apart 
from, that which the mere general biographer would 
afford the means of explaining. There is an influence 
of a great man derived from things indescribable, 
almost, or incapable of enumeration, or singly insuf- 
ficient to account for it, but through which his spirit 
transpires, and his individuality goes forth on the con- 



APPENDIX. 449 

temporary generation. And thus, I should say, one 
grand tendency of his life and character was to elevate 
the whole tone of the public mind. He did this, in- 
deed, not merely by example. He did it by dealing, 
as he thought, truly and in manly fashion, with that 
public mind. He evinced his love of the people, not 
so much by honeyed phrases as by good counsels and 
useful service, vera pro gratis. He showed how he ap- 
preciated them by submitting sound arguments to their 
understandings, and right motives to their free will. He 
came before them, less with flattery than with instruc- 
tion ; less with a vocabulary larded with the words hu- 
manity and philanthropy, and progress and brotherhood, 
than with a scheme of politics, an educational, social, 
and governmental system, which would have made them 
prosperous, happy, and great. 

What the greatest of the Greek historians said of 
Pericles, we all feel might be said of him, — « He did 
not so much follow as lead the people, because he 
framed not his words to please them, like one who is 
gaining power by unworthy means, but was able and 
dared, on the strength of his high character, even to 
brave their anger by contradicting their will." 

I should indicate it, as another influence of his life, 
acts, and opinions, that it was, in an extraordinary 
degree, uniformly and liberally conservative. He saw 
with vision as of a prophet, that if our system of united 
government can be maintained till a nationality shall 
be generated, of due intensity and due comprehension, 
a glory indeed millennial, a progress without end, a 
triumph of humanity hitherto unseen, were ours ; and, 



450 APPENDIX. 

therefore, he addressed himself to maintain that united 
government. 

Standing on the Rock of Plymouth, he bade distant 
generations hail, and saw them rising, " demanding life, 
impatient for the skies," from what then were " fresh, 
unbounded, magnificent wildernesses ; " from the shore 
of the great, tranquil sea, not yet become ours. But 
observe to what he welcomes them ; by what he would 
bless them. " It is to good government." It is to 
"treasures of science and delights of learning." It is 
to the " sweets of domestic life, the immeasurable good 
of rational existence, the immortal hopes of Christian- 
ity, the light of everlasting truth." 

It will be happy, if the wisdom and temper of his ad- 
ministration of our foreign affairs shall preside in. the 
time which is at hand. Sobered, instructed by the ex- 
amples and warnings of all the past, he yet gathered, 
from the study and comparison of all the eras, that 
there is a silent progress of the race, — without pause, 
without haste, without return, — to which the counsel- 
ings of history are to be accommodated by a wise phi- 
losophy. More than, or as much as, that of any of our 
public characters, his statesmanship was one which rec- 
ognized a Europe, an old world, but yet grasped the 
capital idea of the American position, and deduced from 
it the whole fashion and color of its policy ; which dis- 
cerned that we are to play a high part in human 
affairs, but discerned, also, what part it is, — peculiar, 
distant, distinct, and grand as our hemisphere; an in- 
fluence, not a contact, — the stage, the drama, the ca- 
tastrophe, all but the audience, all our own, — and if 



APPENDIX. 451 

ever he felt himself at a loss, he consulted, reverently, 
the genius of Washington. 

In bringing these memories to a conclusion, — for I 
omit many things because I dare not trust myself to 
speak of them, — I shall not be misunderstood, or give 
offense, if I hope that one other trait in his public 
character, one doctrine, rather, of his political creed, 
may be remembered and be appreciated. It is one of 
the two fundamental precepts in which Plato, as ex- 
pounded by the great master of Latin eloquence and 
reason and morals, comprehends the duty of those who 
share in the conduct of the State, — " ut qnceeunque 
agunt, totum corpus reipublicce curent, nedum partem 
aliquam tuentur, reliquas deserant ; " that they comprise 
in their care the whole body of the Republic, nor keep 
one part and desert another. He gives the reason, — 
one reason, — of the precept, " qui autem parti civium 
consulunt, partem negligunt, rem pemieiosissimam in 
civitatem inducunt, seditionem atque discordiam" The 
patriotism which embraces less than the whole induces 
sedition and discord, the last evil of the state. 

How profoundly he had comprehended this truth ; 
with what persistency, with what passion, from the 
first hour he became a public man to the last beat of 
the great heart, he cherished it ; how little he ac- 
counted the good, the praise, the blame of this locality 
or that, in comparison of the larger good and the 
general and thoughtful approval of his own, and our, 
whole America, — she this day feels and announces. 
Wheresoever a drop of her blood flows in the veins 
of men, this trait is felt and appreciated. The hunter 



452 APPENDIX. 

beyond Superior ; the fisherman on the deck of the 
nigh night-foundered skiff ; the sailor on the uttermost 
sea, — will feel, as he hears these tidings, that the 
protection of a sleepless, all-embracing, parental care 
is withdrawn from him for a space, and that his path- 
way henceforward is more solitary and less safe than 
before. 

But I cannot pursue these thoughts. Among the 
eulogists who have just uttered the eloquent sorrow of 
England at the death of the great Duke, one has em- 
ployed an image and an idea which I venture to 
modify and appropriate. 

" The Northmen's image of death is finer than that 
of other climes ; no skeleton, but a gigantic figure that 
envelops men within the massive folds of its dark gar- 
ment." Webster seems so enshrouded from us, as the 
last of the mighty three, themselves following a mighty 
series, — the greatest closing the procession. The robe 
draws round him, and the era is past. 

Yet how much there is which that all-ample fold 
shall not hide, — the recorded wisdom, the great ex- 
ample, the assured immortality. 

They speak of monuments ! 

" Nothing can cover his high fame hut heaven ; 
No pyramids set off his memories 
But the eternal substance of his greatness; 
To which I leave him." 



INDEX. 



Abinger, Lord. See Scarlett, Sir 
James. 

Adams, Charles Francis, 254, 391, 395. 

Adams, Ebenezer, professor at Dart- 
mouth, 247, 343, 353, 359. 

Adams, John, defense of British sol- 
diers, 13. 

Adams, John Quincy, his mental cul- 
ture, 70; classification of words used 
by, 108; "the last of the Ad- 
amses," 254. 

Adams, Rev. Dr., Choate's pastor, 215, 
329 ; on Choate's treatment of others, 
225; censured for writing "The 
Southside View," 329; commended 
for preaching the gospel, 330. 

Adjectives, value of, learned by study- 
ing botany, 98 ; did not worry 
Choate, 401. 

Advocate, duty and privilege of, 20; 
the jury, described, 49. 

" Age of the Pilgrims," the, 229-231. 

Allen, Charles, 236, 391. 

America, advantages of life in, con- 
trasted with those of Europe, 140, 
141. 

Andrew, John A., 409. 

Anglo-Saxon language, not adapted to 
higher forms of expression, 86 ; prob- 
able effect of its exclusive use, 88; 
English reduced to, an unspeakable 
calamity, 95; Anglo-Saxon words 
used by distinguished scholars, 101, 
107-111. 

Appleton, William, 236. 

Argyll, Duke of, suggestion as to hu- 
man action, 395, 396. 



Ashburton, Lord, action in the Caro- 
line affair, 183 ; with Webster, nego- 
tiates the Oregon treaty, 185; ap- 
pearance, 423. 

Ashburton treaty, 185, 407, 415, 421. 

Bacon, Lord, Ben Jonson's tribute to, 
306. 

Bancroft, George, 409. 

Banks, N. P., 236. 

Bartlett, Sidney, 236. 

Bates, Isaac C., 277. 

Bell, Joseph M., enters the army, 202; 
death, 203. 

Benjamin, Park, 409. 

Benton, Thomas H., denounces Web- 
ster's course in the McLeod case, 
174. 

Bible, importance of study of, 91 ; in 
schools, 214. 

Biography, uses of, 226. 

Blair, Hugh, respectable in his style, 
223. 

Blowers, Sampson S., assists in the de- 
fense of British soldiers, 13. 

Boundary dispute between Massachu- 
setts and Rhode Island, 56, 410, 424. 

Boutwell, George S., 236. 

Boyden, Dr., letter from, 307-311; in 
college with Choate, 307; a prophecy 
and its fulfillment, 309; estimate of 
Choate, 311. 

Briggs, George N., 236. 

Brougham, Lord, revision of speech in 
the Queen's case, 96; classification 
of words used by, 110; Macaulay's 
spite for, 219. 



454 



INDEX. 



Brown, Rev. Francis, president of 

Dartmouth College, 246, 357. 
Brown, Professor, 26, 53, 54, 158, 192, 

204, 210, 220, 241. 
Buchanan, James, compliments Choate 

54, 177 ; part in the McLeod debate, 

174. 
Bunyan, John, eloquence of, 70; not a 

classical scholar, 79 ; an exceptional 

writer of English, 80. 
Burke, Edmund, and. Erkskine, 28; 

classification of words used by, 111; 

style in speaking, 121, 122; Choate's 

opinion of, 428. 
Burlingame, Anson, 236. 
Burns, Robert, his father's advice, 

264. 
Bush, George, 346. 
Butler, Benjamin F., 236. 
Butler, Charles, 223. 
Byron, Lord, fastidious taste of, 97. 

Calhoun, John C, surprise at Choate's 
eloquence, 260. 

Campbell, Lord John, classification of 
words used by, 111. 

Carlyle, Thomas, a detractor of Scott's 
novels, 142. 

Caroline, affair of the, 173-176, 179, 
182-184. 

Carpenter, Matt. H., as to Choate's ef- 
forts to perfect his memory, 64 ; 
letter from, 293-298; studies law 
with Choate, 293; Choate the supe- 
rior of Webster. 295; anecdotes, 295- 
298. 

Catron, Judge, quoted, 54, 420. 

Chapman, Chief Justice, on Bunyan's 
eloquence, 70. 

Character, formation of, 73. 

Charity, a privileged subject, 295. 

Chatham, Lord, a clew to his mental 
tasks, 58 ; "a great and celebrated 
name," 413. 

Child, Linus, 391. 

Choate, David, father of Rufus, 2. 

Choate, David, 2; letters to, 241-252. 

Choate, Francis, 1. 

" Choate Island," Rufus Choate's birth- 
place, 238. 



Choate, Rufus, ancestry, 1; birth, 2; 
boyhood, 2; college life, 3, 241-252, 
262-266, 307, 308, 341-346, 351-360; 
a law student, 3, 300; admitted to 
practice, 3; begins practice at Dan- 
vers, 4; marriage, 4; moves to Salem, 
4; member of legislature and state 
Senator, 4; elected to Congress, 4; 
settles in Boston, 4 ; early compari- 
son with Webster, 5; practice in 
criminal cases, 7, 8; legal enthusi- 
asm, 9, 26; habits of study, 29; 
power of memory, 30-32; keen pen- 
etration, 33-38; interviewing a jury- 
man, 38; number of his arguments, 
42; manner of examining witnesses, 
43, 44, 47; unjust criticisms, 47,252; 
a man of ideas, 51; a most relentless 
inquisitor after facts, 52; early ef- 
forts at the bar, 53; a master of the 
pathetic, 53; first speech in Congress, 
54; effect of his pathos, 57; forensic 
rhetoric his great study, 59 ; habits 
of reading, 63, 64; efforts to improve 
his memory, 64; faith in study, 65; 
an untiring worker, 65; discovers an 
article by De Quincey, 66; special 
studies, 68; on improvement, 69-71; 
advice to a student, 71, 72; on the 
formation of character, 73-78; clas- 
sical studies, 79 ; solicitude as to 
choice and use of words, 96; study 
of words, 97-99; vocabulary, 100- 
106, 378, 379; classification of words 
used by, 102, 103 ; variations of style, 
112 ; long sentences, 113, 367, effects 
of his eloquence, 115, 231; "flow- 
ers of speech," 115; indisposition to 
revise his arguments, 118, 119, 259; 
long arguments, 124; a trying case, 
125-127; style in speaking, and its 
effect, 128-130; travels in Europe — 
extracts from his journal, 130-139; 
taste for music, 141; defends Scott 
and his novels, 142; on Kossuth, 
146-149; eulogy of Webster, 150- 
156 ; preparation for service in Con- 
gress, 157; lost speeches, 158; rank 
as a statesman, 159 ; opposes annex- 
ation of Texas, 160, 408; advocates 



INDEX. 



455 



a protective tariff, 161-172; defends 
Webster's course in the McLeod ease, 
175-177; Buchanan's compliment, 
177; supports the Remediable Jus- 
tice Bill, 184 ; urges the confirmation 
of the Ashburton treaty, 185, 407; 
favors a national bank, 185-191; his 
speech interrupted by Mr. Clay, 
192; his replies, 192; character of 
his argument, 193; retires from the 
Senate, 196; returns to the profes- 
sion, 196; declines a professorship in 
Cambridge Law School, 196; de- 
clines judicial honors, 196, 309, 349 ; 
objections to his acceptance of ju- 
dicial office, 197, 349; character as 
a lawyer, 198; his last case, 199; 
death, 200; love of the Union, 200; 
fears a civil war, 201; represented 
in the war of the Rebellion, 202, 203; 
contrasted with Macaulay, 204; use 
of foreign terms, 211, 212; methods 
of work, 213; on the Bible in schools, 
214; a morning's lesson, 215; tem- 
per in debate, 217, 219 ; as a critic, 
222, 223 ; treatment of others, 225, 
293, 294; oration, "The Age of the 
Pilgrims," 229-231; in Massachu- 
setts Convention to revise the Consti- 
tution, 235; " Did you find any chol- 
era there V" 238; early letters, 241- 
250; a teacher at Washington, 249; 
handwriting, 251, 252, 325, 393 ; un- 
selfishness, 253 ; argument in the 
Methodist Church case, 257-259; 
speech in the Senate, 260 ; Calhoun's 
surprise at his eloquence, 260 ; a col- 
lege joke, 262; a college speech, 263- 
266 ; treatment of a bad witness, 267 ; 
estimate of human glory, 269; ought 
to have been a Greek professor, 277; 
a scholar by instinct, 280; as a theo- 
logian, 281; relish for study, 281, 
282; peculiarities of his genius, 282, 
283; love for the law, 284-286; de- 
votion to his clients, 287, 288, 322, 
398; anecdotes, 287, 288; enthusi- 
asm, 289, 290; charity, 294; awe of 
Webster, 295, pleasantries, 296-298, 
314-316; mastery over the melan- 



choly, 298 ; influence on young men 
300, 301, 303 ; not a party leader, 
311; unlike other men, 311; personal 
appearance, 313, 370, 371; in social 
intercourse, 317; manner of address- 
ing a jury, 317, 318; scholarship, 
320, 321 ; methods of practice, 322- 
325 ; the students' serenade, 327, 
328; opinion of Chillingworth, 328; 
midnight recreation, 329; " The Gos- 
pel according to Choate," 330; at 
Webster's funeral, 330; respect of 
English lawyers for, 332; anecdotes, 
332-338; his library, 334, 336; the 
ideal scholar, 344; an early riser, 
348; political principles, 350, 351; 
views as to abolition of slavery, 351; 
in scholarship, himself his only par- 
allel, 354; his conversation, 303, 373; 
love of epithets, 364; use of adjec- 
tives, 365, 366, 401; development of 
his argument, 367; power over a jury, 
368; manner at the bar, 369, 380; a 
master of close logical reasoning, 
370; abstracted bearing, 371; criti- 
cisms of contemporaries, 377; a be- 
liever in Christianity, 381; Webster's 
tribute to his style, 386; campaign 
speech at Bunker Hill in 1840, 387; 
speech at Concord in 1844, 388; lec- 
ture on the Sea, 389; plea for town 
governments, 389, 390; in the Whig 
State Convention in 1847, 390, 391; 
supports compromise measures of 
1850, 395; opium vs. electricity, 397; 
anecdotes, 398-405; in the Whig 
National Convention of 1852, 406; 
case of the slave child Med, 406, 
407; letters to Sumner, 414-430; re- 
marks before the Circuit Court on 
death of Webster, 433-452. 
Choate, Rufus, Jr., in the war of the 

Rebellion, 202; death, 203. 
Choate, Thomas, 1. 
Choate, Washington, 346. 
Choate, William, 2. 
Cicero, the defense of criminals, 10; 
the orator's knowledge, Gl ; a great 
master of speech, 68 ; the orator's 
style, 96; Choate's opinion of, 336. 



456 



INDEX. 



Classical study, effect of, 93. 

Classics, study of, 79-95; necessity of, 
92. 

Clay, Henry, efforts to cultivate a habit 
of speaking, 59 ; opposes annexation 
of Texas, 1G0; interrupts Mr. Choate, 
192; his apology, 193. 

Congress, a short term in, a sacrifice, 
195. 

Conscience and Cotton Whigs, 390, 391. 

Constitution of the United States, con- 
tested powers of, 188. 

Counsel necessary in criminal cases, 11. 

Court Street, No. 4, 409. 

Cowley and Milton, 335. 

Creole, The, case of, 419. 

Criminals, rights of, 21, 22. 

Croker, J. W., and Macaulay, 218. 

Crosby, Nathan, letter from, 340-351; 
in college with Choate, 341; an early 
interview, 348. 

Crowinshield, F. B., 236. 

Curtis, Benjamin R., Judge of Massa- 
chusetts Supreme Court, 197; pre- 
sides at a compromise meeting in 
1850, 394. 

Cushing, Caleb, classification of words 
used by, 109 ; speech in the McLeod 
case, 180. 

Cushing, Luther S., 409. 

Dana, Richard H., Jr., on the source 
of Choate's power, 41; in Massachu- 
setts Convention, 236. 

Dartmouth College, and the legislative 
controversy, 353; deposition of Pres- 
ident Wheelock, 357 ; the new presi- 
dent, 357; attack on the societies' 
libraries, 358 ; repulse, 358 ; the 
" university " a political fraud, 358; 
its collapse, 358; pursuit of knowl- 
edge under difficulties, 359; loyalty 
of the students, 359. 

Dawes, Henry L., 236. 

De Quincey, Thomas, denies the author- 
ship of an essay, 66; afterwards finds 
the manuscript, 66. 

Derivatives, classes of, 102, 103. 

Disraeli, Benjamin, remark on Macau- 
lay's temper, 218. 



Dexter, Franklin, urges Choate to de- 
fend Professor Webster, 16. 

Edmunds, John W., comment on the 
McLeod case, 181, 182. 

Electricity, uses and possibilities of, 
384, 385; the sources of bodily move- 
ment, 396; vs. opium, 397. 

Elliot, Samuel A., 236. 

Eloquence, Mackintosh's definition of, 
121. 

Emerson, R. W., analysis of "Henry 
VIII.," 81; Montaigne's choice of 
words, 97. 

Eminent men misunderstood, 44. 

English reduced to Saxon a calamity, 
95. 

Erskine, Lord, on the duty of the ad- 
vocate, 11 ; defense of Tom Paine, a 
question of right, 11 ; his claim to 
remembrance, 11 ; his note - book, 
28; and Burke, 28; his style formed 
by studying Milton and Burke, 80; 
classification of words used by, 111; 
length of his speeches, 127. 

Europe, comparative advantages of liv- 
ing in, 139, 140. 

Evarts, William M., classification of 
words used by, 109 ; anecdote of, 400. 

Everett, Edward, opinion of Choate's 
persuasive powers, 54; classification 
of words used by, 108; appointed 
minister to England, 415, 417. 

Fancher, Enoch L., letter from, 255- 
260; engages Choate hi the Metho- 
dist Church case, 259 ; asks him to 
revise his argument, 259; his reply, 
259 ; opinion of Choate as a lawyer 
and orator, 260. 

Faneuil Hall, refused for a Webster 
reception, 391; "Faneuil Hall — 
Open," 394. 

Fields, James T., letter from, 299-306. 

Forensic speaker, rule for, 123. 

Fox, Mr., British minister, 173; sug- 
gests rule of personal immunity in 
the McLeod case, 174, 175; misin- 
formed in regard to the McLeod case, 
179. 



INDEX. 



457 



Franklin, Benjamin, a writer of good 
English, 79; his style formed by a 
study of "The Spectator," 80. 

Froude, James Anthony, classification 
of words used by, 110. 

Genius is a genius for industry, 383. 
Gillett, Edward B., anecdotes bv, 334- 

339. 
Gladstone, W. E., classification of 

words used by, 111; ascribes a dual 

origin to the Greeks, 83. 
Gray, John C, 230. 
Greek art, development of, 85. 
Greek language, a composite language, 

81; intolerant of foreign words, 81; 

development of, SI; use of Greek 

words by distinguished authors, 108. 
Greeks, ancient, studied no language 

but their own, 82 ; of dual origin, 83; 

primitive condition of the arts 

among, 85. 
Greeley, Horace, appearance and 

speech at Concord in 1811, 388. 
Greene, General Nathanael, quoted, 

265. 

Hamilton, Andrew, defense of Zenger, 
14. 

Hardin, Benjamin, effect of Choate's 
eloquence, 54. 

Harrison, President, 185. 

Harvey, Peter, 393. 

Hellenic race, 83. 

Henry, Patrick, study of oratory, 58. 

Herbert, George, worth of a good life, 
264. 

Hillard, George S., 236, 363, 409, 416. 

Hitchcock, Rev. Roswell D., impressions 
of Choate, 129, 130. 

Holland, Lady, invites Macaulay to 
visit Holland House, 220; Macau- 
lay's criticism of, 221. 

Holland, Lord, 221. 

India, success of English schools in, 
89 ; importance of Macaulay's serv- 
ice for, 90. 

Johnson, Dr., criticism of a fine 



speaker, 61; what is a perfect stvle, 

90. * ' 

Johnson, Reverdy, classification of 

words used by, 109. 
Jonson, Ben, quoted, 80, 305. 
Jurisprudence, the Justinian definition, 

30. 

Kellogg, Brainerd, classification of 
words used by leading authors, 103, 
105, 108-111. 

Knight, Charles, opinion of Shake- 
speare's learning, 80. 

Kossuth, Louis, visit to America, 146 ; 
eloquence, 140-149; the sympathy 
he awakened, 118, 119. 

Lamartine's choice of authors, 91. 
Latin language, universality of, 87; 
variety and fertility of, 87; its use 
in the study of modern languages, 
93; use of Latin words by leading 
authors, 103-111. 

Law, the study of, 23; Choate's love 
for, 284, 285, 304 ; the expression of 
the highest justice of the State, 284; 
the connecting link, 284; the Roman 
law, 285 ; its application, 280; its 
majesty, 287 : Hooker's metaphor, 
303. 

Lawrence, Abbott, minister to Eng- 
land, 332; in Whig State Conven- 
tion, 391. 

Learned men, the hope and strength of 
the nation, 265. 

Lord, Judge, conversation on Profes- 
sor Webster's case, 17; in Massa- 
chusetts Convention, 236. 

Loring, Charles G., 219. 

Loring, Edward G., 409. 

Macaulay, Lord, secures system of 
English education for India, 89, 90; 
on the structure of Milton's lines, 
97; classification of words used by, 
110; contrasted with Choate, 204; 
his self-esteem, 205, 206; his strong- 
est claim to remembrance, 206; a 
short practice at the bar, 207; a slow 
writer, 210 ; protests against the use 



458 



INDEX. 



of foreign terms, 211; on the study 
of the Bible, 214; want of reverence, 
216 ; and the Methodist preacher, 
217; temper, 219, 220; visits to Hol- 
land House, 220, 231; want of feel- 
ing for others, 221, 222; his reading, 
222; a severe critic, 223; self-lauda- 
tions, 224 ; treatment of admirers, 
224, 225; compared with Choate, 
270-274. 

Mackenzie Rebellion, the, 173. 

Mackintosh, Sir James, definition of 
eloquence, 121. 

McLeod, Alexander, case of, 173; his 
liberation demanded by Great Brit- 
ain, 173-184; debate on, in Con- 
gress, 174 ; course pursued by Web- 
ster in, 174, 178-180; trial and ac- 
quittal, 183. 

Mann, Horace, 409. 

Mansfield, Lord, retort, 28; study of 
oratory, 60. 

Marsh, George P., 100, 103 ; letter 
from, 375-382. 

Marsh, James, 346. 

Marshall, Chief Justice, classification 
of words used by, 108. 

Mason, Jeremiah, Choate's estimate of, 
377. 

Massachusetts Convention to revise the 
Constitution, 235-237. 

Massachusetts vs. Rhode Island, 56, 
410, 424. 

Mechanic arts, progress of, 164-166. 

Methodist Church case, Choate*s rela- 
tion to, 118; his study of the case, 
256; his brief, 258; his argument, 
257-259. 

Milton's use of words, 100. 

Montgomery, Robert, persecuted by 
Macaulay, 218. 

Moral firmness, essential to success, 
205. 

Morton, Marcus, 236. 

Murphy, Henry C, conception of free 
trade, 171. 

National crimes, responsibility for, 175. 

" Negro Plot," the, 14. 

Nesmith, George W., letter from, 261- 



2G9; a college joke, 262; journey to 
Hanover with Webster, Choate, and 
Woodbury, 267 ; their conversation, 
268 ; stage-coach recitations, 268; 
last interview with Choate, 269. 

Oliver, Henry K., letter from, 352-361 ; 
transferred from Harvard to Dart- 
mouth, 353; first acquaintance with 
Choate, 353; passage describing Ci- 
cero, applied to Choate, 354 ; life at 
Dartmouth, 357-360. 

Orator, natural, or born, 58 ; office of, GO. 

Paige, James A., anecdote of Choate 
and Webster, 332. 

Park, Professor, would have made a 
great lawyer, 281. 

Parker, E. G., a hunt for a word, 67. 

Parker, Theodore, 331. 

Parsons, Theophilus, the defense of the 
criminal, 13 ; foundations of Choate's 
knowledge of the law, 39. 

Pate's case, duty of counsel in, 9. 

Pathetic, influence of the, 115. 

Peck, Rev. George, defendant in Meth- 
odist Church case, 225. 

Pelasgians, the, 83. 

Perkins, J. O, tribute from, 411. 

Perley, Chief Justice, opinion of 
Choate's style in speaking, 128. 

Persiflage, a bit of, 46. 

Phillips, Stephen O, 391. 

Phillips, Wendell, 8, 9. 

PhoBirix Bank trial, incident of, 31. 

Pinkney, William, declaimed in pri- 
vate, 59; habit of memorizing, 72; 
classification of words used by, 108. 

Pitt, William, preparatory studies in 
oratory, 58 ; study of words, 97 ; 
classification of words used by, 111. 

Poetry and prose, their alliance, 51. 

Pratt, Edward Ellerton, anecdotes, 65 ; 
Choate's fears of a civil war, 201. 

Puritans, their trials and triumphs, 74- 
77. 

Putnam, Rev. A. P., impressions of 
Choate, 232 - 254 ; interview with 
Choate, 234 ; visits Choate's birth- 
place, 237. 



INDEX. 



459 



Quincy, Josiah, Jr., defense of British 
soldiers, 12. 

Reading, vacations for, 63. 
Remediable Justice Bill, 184. 
Rhetorical decoration, importance of, 
122. 

Saltoustall, Leverett, anecdote of, 399. 

Sanborn, E. I)., recollections, 327-333 ; 
early acquaintance with Choate, 327; 
advised to read Chillingworth, 328; 
visits Choate, 329; at Webster's fu- 
neral, 330; anecdotes, 332, 333. 

Saxon language. See Anglo-Saxon. 

Saxons, the, 8G. 

Scarlett, Sir James, advocates counsel 
for prisoners, 12. 

Scholarship, competition in, 347. 

Scholar, the successful, 204. 

Scott, Sir Walter, disparaged by Car- 
lyle, 142; defended by Choate, 142- 
14G. 

Shakespeare, William, a classical 
scholar, 80; Ben Jonson's saying, 
80; Coleridge's opinion, 80; Charles 
Knight's opinion, 80 ; Emerson's 
analysis of " Henry VIII.," 81; au- 
thorship of "Henry VI.," 81; 
adopted the work older authors, 82; 
use of words, 100. 

Shaw, Chief Justice, charge in Tirrell's 
case, 7; early impressions of Choate, 
53; Choate's reverence for, 315; his 
way of expressing disapproval, 315; 
Choate's remark, 315; an "agree- 
able" verdict, 405; opinion in the 
case of the slave child Med, 407. 

Sheridan, R. B., needed reliableness of 
character, 2G4. 

Smith, Cyrus P., a college serenade, 
327. 

Smith, Sydney, on counsel for prison- 
ers, 10; classification of words used 
by, 110; advice to Macaulay, 218. 

"Social Friends," society at Dart- 
mouth, Choate's address before, 2G3. 

Somerbv, G. A., at Choate's grave, 
431. 

Spring, Rev. Gardiner, 216. 



Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, classification 
of words used by, 110. 

Star Route trial, long arguments in, 
127. 

Stephens, Alexander EL, opinion of 
Choate's eloquence, 55; rescues a 
lost speech, 158. 

Stevenson, J. Thomas, 236. 

Storrs, Rev. Richards S., classification 
of words used by, 109; letter from, 
275-292; first impressions of Mr. 
Choate, 277, 278; student in his of- 
fice, 279. 

Story, William W., letter .from, 362- 
374. 

Strong, William, the comparison of 
Choate and Macaulay, 270-272. 

Suffolk Bar, proceedings on death of 
Choate, 39-42; on death of Webster, 
433. 

Sumner, Charles, interest in Professor 
Webster's case, 16; classification of 
words used by, 109 ; early acquaint- 
ance with Choate, 408; at No. 4 
Court Street, 410; advocates quali- 
fied right of search, 410; on the use 
of adjectives, 411; letters to, from 
Choate, 414. 

Swift, Jonathan, describes a perfect 
style, 96. 

Tariff, protective, 161-172. 

Taste, improvement of, 69, 70. 

Teutonic language, 401 ; percentage of 
words used by leading authors, 108- 
111. 

Texas, annexation of, 150. 

Thompson, Isaac Grant, on the study 
of forensic eloquence, 59. 

Tirrell's case, 7, 365, 366, 398, 399. 

Tracy, Rev. Joseph, on Choate's re- 
ligious character, 340. 

Translation as an intellectual discipline, 
67. 

Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay, 88, 204- 
222, 270, 271. 

Turner, Sharon, the power and copious- 
ness of the Anglo-Saxon language, 
100, 107. 

Tyler, President, 185. 



4G0 



l.X I > EX. 



Upham, Cha: 236. 

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Martin, ll 
Van l hi a M . d« scription of 

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114, 115; 
115| 

drum," 1 16, 1 IT 

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to 1 1 

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handwri 



of, 15 : Mr. 

16, 17: Sum- 

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Zenger, John Peter, case of, 14. 












